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THE ROUND TRIP 



BY WAY 0!f PANAMA 



THROUGH CALIFORNIA, OREGON, NEVADA, UTAH, 
IDAHO, AND COLORADO 



NOTES ON RAILROADS, COMMERCE, AGRICULTURE, MINING, 
SCENERY, AND PEOPLE 



JOHN CODMAN 









NEW YORK 
G. P. P UTN A M'S SONS 

182 Fifth Avenue 
1879. 






,C(,3 



Copyright, 
P. PUTNAM'S SONS, 
1879. 



®0 

MY COMPANION IN THESE JOURNEYS, AND IN THE JOURNEY 

OF LIFE, THIS MEMENTO OF PLEASANT DAYS IS 

AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. 



New York April, 1S79. 



PREFACE. 



Desiring to be on familiar terms with my readers, I 
have adopted tlie unconstrained style of a personal narra- 
tive, without any affectation of modesty in avoiding the 
use of personal pronouns. 

Lest complaint should be made of anachronisms, and 
there should be discoveries of ubiquity, the reader is 
notified that this book is the result of more than one 
year's experience, brought up as nearly as possible to 
the conditions of the present day, and combined as con- 
tinuous. 

I wish to point out objects of interest not often 
" written up." Thus, little is said of large cities, and 
absolutely nothing of the Yosemite. 

The tourist starts upon the Trans-Continental tour 
with a library of illustrated guide-books and maps, some 
of which are indispensable. If he goes directly from New 
York to San Francisco, and thence directly returns, they 
are all that are necessary. 

If, however, he has the leisure and inclination to look 
at some things not exactly on the line of railroads, he may 
perhaps profitably make a selection from The Round 
Trip. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

A Winter Trip to California by the Isthmus Route — 
Leaving New York — At Sea — Nearing the Warm 
Regions — Social Lines on Shipboard — San Salvador 
— A Cultured Young Lady — Aspinwall — The Princess 
Columbus Married — A Duel Page i 

CHAPTER II. 

The Trip Across the Isthmus of Darien — The Commerce 
of the Isthmus — Surveys for a Canal — Panama Rail- 
road Company — The Terminus on the Pacific Side — 
Panama — Its Eventful History — Commerce of the 
City — British Enterprise 9 

CHAPTER III. 

A Comfortable old Ship — Settling a Feminine Dispute — 
" The Pacific Agitator " — Ports and Trade of Cen- 
tral America — Acapulco — Arrival at San Fran- 
cisco 17 



Viii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

CALIFORNIA. 

A Fable — A Reminiscence of 1848 — The Comparative 
Production of Gold and Silver — The Career of James 
C. Flood, one of the Bonanza Kings .... Page 27 

CHAPTER V. 

Leaving for Southern California — The Pious Agricul- 
turist — Great and Small Farmers — Irrigation — Ridi- 
cule of Fever and Ague — A California Editor's Home- 
stead 22 

CHAPTER VI. 

The " Corkscrew " and " Loop " — The Autocrat of the 
Desert — Below the Level of the Sea — A Crazy Plan 
for Irrigation — The City of Tuma— The Onward March 
OF the Southern Pacific Railroad — Future Prospects 
of Arizona — The Indians and their Chief ... 42 

CHAPTER VII. 

Rival towns in the San Bernardino Valley — Newspaper 
Enterprise — Paradise of Orange Trees — Intellec- 
tuality AND Laziness — Mormon and Roman Catholic 
Civilizations — The Mission of San Gabriel and its 
Good Wine ^2^ 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Los Angelos — Disappearance of the Greasers — A Ken- 
tuckian's Discovery of Contentment — The Founder of 
the California Wine Industry — Statistics of Orange 
Culture ^t^ 



CONTENTS. ix 

CHAPTER IX. 

Natural Divisions of California — Anaheim — A Thrifty 
German Settlement Page 68 

CHAPTER X. 

Sanguine " Sanjaigans " — Effects of the Drought — Santa 
Monica — A Steamship with a History — San Buenaven- 
tura — The Ojai Valley — Missionary Enterprise . 74 

CHAPTER XI, 

A Stage Ride up the California Coast — The Coacher's 
Yarns — How a Clergyman was Re-Baptized — The 
City with the Perfect Climate — A Small Landowner 
AND his Trifling Possessions 79 

CHAPTER XII. 

The ups and downs of Travel — The Death of the Herds 
— A Sand Storm — San Luis Obispo — The Springs of Paso 
DE RoBLES — Baths of Water and of Earth — German 
Explanation of the Mud Baths — Hotel Life in a 
Cottage 84 

CHAPTER XIIL 

End of the Stage-coach Romance — The Boundary of 
Southern California — Mexican Grants — Approach to 
Santa Cruz — Its Early History — Its Attractions . 94 

CHAPTER XIV. 

From Santa Cruz to San Jose — The Garden of Santa 
Clara Valley — The Towns of San Jose and Santa 



X CONTENTS. 

Clara — Another Mission — The Church and the 
Grape-Wine and Brandy — The Enterprise of Gen- 
eral Naglee Page 102 

CHAPTER XV. 

Northern California — Mount Shasta in the Distance — • 
Railroads — Farming on a Large Scale in 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Review of the Mining and Agricultural Interests of 
California — Along the Sacramento — Napa — Calistoga 
— The Petrified Forest — The Geysers — San Fran- 
cisco Iig 

CHAPTER XVII. 

" The Chinese Problem " 126 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Along the Coast to Oregon — Discovery of the Colum- 
bia River — The Bar — Industries of Oregon — Salmon 
Fishery 135 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Astoria — Portland — Willamette Valley — Scenery of the 
Columbia — The Dalles — Indian Troubles — Oregon's Op- 
portunity — Departure 145 

CHAPTER XX. 

From California Eastwards — The Mines and Gardens of 
Grass Valley — Lake Tahoe, Carson and Virginia City 
— The Sinks of the Humboldt — The Great American 
Desert — Arrival at Salt Lake City 158 



CONTENTS. xi 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Sunset at Salt Lake — The Mormon Jerusalem — The As- 
sembly OF the Saints — The Late^Brigham Young — The 
Closeof the Conference — Society in Utah . . Page 169 

CHAPTER XXn. 

Out into the Country — The Great Salt Lake — Mormon 
and Gentile Towns — Elections — Ophir Camp — Success- 
ful Business Men 178 

CHAPTER XXHL 

Camp Floyd Ruled by a Bishop and the BIshop Ruled 
BY his Wife — William Hickman — Lehi and the Bishop 
who Ruled his Wives and his Diocese — The Garden 
OF Isaac Goodwin 189 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Sorghum — Luzerne — The American Fork Canon . . 202 

CHAPTER XXV. 

Provo — Factory and Co-operative Store — The Two Mor- 
mon Sects — The Childless Bishop and his Nine For- 
tunate Brothers 207 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

The Journey to the South — The Hotel at Payson — Our 
Landlady's Choice — Mormon and Gentile Amenities 
— Hospitalities of the Bishops — Mount Nebo — En- 
ergetic Conduct of a Bishop's Wife — San Pete Val- 
ley — War, the Consequence of Miss Ward's Obstinacy 
— -A Monogamous Mormon Town — Reflections of Mrs. 
Price — The Coal Mines 213 



xii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

Towns and Villages ^in the San Pete Valley — German 
Preaching — Providing Tabernacles for Disembodied 
Spirits — Brigham Young's Journey — The Mountain 
Meadow Massacre — Life and Character of the Apostle 
George A. Smith Page 223 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Impressions of Travel in Utah upon the Female Mind— The 
Storm in Clear Creek Canon — Cove Fort — The Ute 
Indians — Angutseeds and Kanosh — On the Way to the 
North — Fillmore — Scipio — Lost on the Desert — The 
Tintec Mines — Return to Salt Lake City. . . . 235 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

Idaho — Soda Springs — Natural Curiosities — The Utah 
AND Northern Railroad — A Jumping Town — The Ban- 
nock Indians — Policy of the Government .... 254 

CHAPTER XXX. 

Travels among the Mormons — The Prolific Patriarch — 
The Legend of Bear Lake — Brother Cook and his 
Family — Vicarious Baptism — A Mormon Court — A Pros- 
perous Convert — Blacksmith's Fork Canon — Return 
to the Line of the Union Pacific 268 

. CHAPTER XXXI. 

The Union Pacific Railroad — The Rocky Mountains — 
Easy-going Emigrants — Greeley, on the road to 
Denver 282 



CONTENTS. xiii 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

The City of Denver — Sunday — Climate — Railroads — En- 
thusiastic McAllister — Colorado Springs — Colorado 
City — Manitou — " Garden of the Gods " and Can- 
ons Page 286 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Ascent of Pike's Peak — The Hermit of the Mountain — 
The Signal Station — A Hunting Expedition — On the 
Denver and Rio Grande Railroad 297 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Pueblo — The Denver and Rio Grande, and the Atchison, 
ToPEKA and Santa Fe Railroads — Canon City — The 
Grand Canon of the Arkansas — Denver again — Colo- 
rado Central Railroad — Idaho Springs — Georgetown — 
General Grant's Drive — Return to the Line of the 
Union Pacific 307 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

Cheyenne — Projected Railroad to the Black Hills — 
The Great Cattle Range — Life of the Ranchman — 
Suggestions to Young Men — Nebraska — Omaha — The 
Bridge Across the Missouri — Railroads to Chicago — 
The Chicago and North-West — A Dinner in the 
Hotel-Car — Contrast of Mining and Agriculture — 
Conclusion 320 



THE ROUND TRIP. 



A Winter Trip to California by the Isthmus Route — 
Leaving New York — At Sea — Nearing the Warm 
Regions — Social Lines on Shipboard — San Salvador 
— A Cultured Young Lady — Aspinwall — The Princess 
Columbus Married — A Duel. 

There is not a great degree of self-sacrifice in bidding 
one's native land adieu when the cold March winds are whistling 
around the corners of city blocks, and the streets are ankle 
deep in snow and slush. 

Cheerless as were the skies overhead, their cheerlessness did 
not pervade our hearts, and there were few among the passen- 
gers of the " Colon " who were not willing to say good-by to their 
friends on the wharf, pitying rather than envying those who 
remained behind. The " Colon " is one of the new iron screw 
steamships of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, complete in 
all her appointments, and ably commanded by Captain Griffin, 
who has had a long experience in the service. Before she had 



2 THE ROUND TRIP. 

reached the Hook and discharged the pilot there were ominous 
signs of a gale — dark masses of clouds heaving up in the north- 
east, and soon spreading themselves like palls over the heavens. 
Then came the rushing of the blast, bringing with it driving 
hail and snow, covering the decks. The good ship plunged into 
the south-west sea that fought in crested ranks against the ad- 
vancing waves from the north-east ; the red light on the port 
and the green light on the starboard side glared into the gloom, 
eyes of red and green shot across our foamy track, stared 
at us for an instant as they passed, and we were alone upon the 
deep. For us the whole world became concentrated in the 
cabins covered by the small area of our decks. 

For three days the north-east gale lasted and drove us across 
the gloomy waters of the gulf stream down to calm and serene 
regions in the balmy air of the tropics. 

As many who had been snugly stowed away in their state- 
rooms came out to breathe the fresh air on deck, we began to 
know each other. Heretofore the passengers had thought more 
of themselves than of society. Now, some of the ladies who 
had only occasionally appeared in very simple attire, the grace 
of which was heightened by the looseness of their floating locks, 
considered it necessary to " do up their hair " and to pull back 
their flowing robes in such a manner as to make the ascent of 
the companion-way more difficult. Fashion resumed its sway 
in our little world. We were introduced over again to some of 
tliose we did not recognize in their disguise, and long before we 
arrived, the eighty cabin passengers had divided themselves into 
coteries and sets, to the best of their ability, after the fashion of 
people in larger communities. It is astonishing how quickly 
women take the measure of each other. Men who belong to 
them, and who are not able to make such nice distinctions, are 



A WINTER TRIP TO CALIFORNIA. ^ 

soon made aware that they will transgress by an innocent recog- 
nition of "that woman," who has been tabooed upon suspicion ! 
Oh, yes ! there is a West End and a Fifth Avenue on board of 
a steamer. She has her South End and her Bower3^ Big worlds 
move and little worlds move, and ants of various degrees crawl 
around upon them all. 

Many people prefer, as we have done, to make the trip to San 
Francisco by steamer and over the isthmus rather than by rail, 
especially when for them there is no novelty in the overland road. 
In summer the Inducements of the route are not so great, but 
for those who have the time to spare it cannot be more pleas- 
antly and healthfully employed at this season. 

There is something inexpressibly luxurious in escaping from 
the clasp of dreary winter, without even a day of intervening 
spring, and falling into the soft arms of summer repose. Over- 
coats and sealskin jackets drop off as if by magic, and each pas- 
senger comes out from his chrysalis in a new dress. 

It was almost sad to witness the calm delight of some in- 
valids who had left home with the fond hope that health would 
come to them on the wings of the mild zephyrs of the South, 
and from the ozone of the sea air. Alas ! how often they are 
disappointed ! But this is not apparent to them at the outset, 
and they flatter themselves — and the well meant but feigned 
encouragement of friends aids in the deception — that they are 
realizing their fond expectations, while to strangers who look on 
with quiet sympathy, the hectic flush, the glassy eye and hollow 
cough tell the story of inevitable decline and death. The favor- 
able appearances caused by milder weather are evanescent; and, 
as the fiower that for a day turns its grateful face to the sun and 
dies at night from the heat it has courted, the consumptive 
becomes enervated by what at first seems a genial warmth, until 



4 THE ROUND TRIP. 

sooner than if he had remained at home he falls a victim to a 
a false hope. Too often the physician, fearful that the patient 
may die on his hands, thoughtlessly recommends the trial of a 
warmer climate, when change of any kind comes too late, whereas, 
in the outset, he should have advised a person of delicate lungs 
to hasten to the mountains of Colorado or Montana. 

On the 2ist day of March, four days from New York, we 
passed the island of San Salvador, or Watkins Island, as it is 
now called, with disgraceful disregard of the renowned discoverer, 
who gave its original name. • 

Well might Columbus have hailed this low islet on that 
eventful morning when it met him, in advance of a new con- 
tinent, as the " Holy Savior " from the threatened mutiny 
of his crew. While cities of the old world have contended 
for the honor of his birth, and those of the old world and the 
new have in turn served as places of his burial, this island com- 
memorates the most important event of his life, and is the earli- 
est landmark of American history. It would be a fitting tribute 
to his memory, and, moreover, serve as a guide to passing nav- 
igators, if the American republics would raise upon its highest 
mound a high and enduring monument in his honor. 

" Dear me," exclaimed a young lady, as we were running 
close under its lee, "so that is the island discovered by Co- 
lumbus ! " "Yes, ma'am," replied a nautical gentleman at her 
side, " and that large house on the height is the one first occu- 
pied by him. He was married to the Indian princess in that 
church at the foot of the hill." 

"Oh, how lovely — how romantic it must have been ! I am so 
glad you told me ! " 

" Why, did you never read that in your geography, or history 
of America ? " 



A WINTER TRIP TO CALIFORNIA. 5 

" Geography ? No ! I never had one, and histories are vulgar. 
You know they are all written in English. I believe they do 
teach themj however, at the primary schools in Boston. I never 
heard Emerson or Weiss talk about such things. Oh, don't 
you think that Emerson is splendid? How he takes one out of 
one's self, and lifts the soul into the blue empyrean of the uni- 
verse, to revel in the realms of psychological investigation !" 

Passing through the channel that separates Cuba from St. 
Domingo we were reminded of one of the most humiliating events 
in our national history — the capture of the " Virginius " and 
the unpardonable submissiveness of the United States govern- 
ment. The cheek of every American should blush with shame 
and indignation when he remembers how in the autumn of 1874 
that little blockade-runner, for she was neither more nor less, 
commanded by an American citizen and under the American 
flag, unarmed and without the intention of her captain or crew 
to participate in active hostilities, was captured outside of the 
prescribed distance from the Cuban shore by a Spanish gunboat, 
brought into a Cuban port, and her captain and crew shot down 
without a trial affording opportunity for defense. After the 
deed was done our government remonstrated, we used diplomacy, 
months passed on and we obtained possession of a useless old 
hulk for future adjudication, and purposely allowed her to sink 
off Cape Hatteras to avoid further trouble with " a friendly 
power." 

After a run of three days through the Caribbean Sea, we ap- 
proached the end of our voyage on the Atlantic side. On 
Sunday, the eighth day from New York, land at Navy Bay hove 
in sight, and at an early hour in the afternoon we made the port 
of Aspinwall. 

With what infinite delight did the first comers to the tropics 



6 THE ROUND TRIP. 

land on this shore, skirted with pahns and bananas ! Lolling 
negroes, chattering monkeys, croaking papagayas, piles of cocoa- 
nuts, plantains, oranges and pineapples, thatched shanties, stag- 
nant ditches, clouds of mosquitos — all greeted us at once and 
welcomed our ship's company to the Isthmus of Panama, 

Aspinwall is the American, and Colon the Spanish name for 
this miserable collection of huts, containing a few hundred in- 
habitants. The Panama Railroad Company own all the build- 
ings fit for dwellings and the docks, exxepting that of the Pacific 
Mail Steamship Company. A church where English service is 
held, is the only public edifice. 

Near by is a monument — of no especial attractiveness — 
erected to Aspinwall, Chauncey and Stephens, the founders of the 
Panama Railroad. Not far from it is a bronze statue of Colum- 
bus, of greater artistic merit, deserving a site where it might be 
better seen and appreciated. It was a present from the Em- 
press Eugenie to this little town, because it bore the name of 
the immortal discoverer. For want of a firm foundation — 
difficult to find in this miasmatic swamp — it is blocked up with 
a few stones upon the morass. Here it serves the convenience 
of washerwomen, who hang their clothes upon the arms and 
legs of Columbus and those of the Indian princess who, bending 
before him, represents the continent on which he lays his hand. 

" So that is the princess Columbus married," exclaimed Miss 
Culture, of Boston. " What a disgraceful position ! I would 
not stoop to any man in that way, even if he had a continent to 
settle upon me." 

** The dower was in the other direction ; she gave the con- 
tinent to him," I replied. 

" More shame to her, then. She should be represented as 
standino; thus " — straiclitenins: herself to the utmost of her little 



A WINTER TRIP TO CALIFORNIA. 7 

height — " and he should have been at her feet. Woman did not 
understand her true position in those days." Well, she has a 
realizing: sense of it now ! 

On the passage there had arisen a fierce dispute between a 
testy ex-Confederate major, of Baltimore, and a usually quiet 
young gentleman of San Francisco, regarding the pre-eminence 
of their respective cities. This resulted in a challenge on the 
part of the military hero, which was promptly accepted by the 
civilian, and an appointment made for a meeting, to take place 
as soon as practicable after arrival. To do the major justice, he 
was no coward. Preparing for a result, possibly fatal to himself, 
with a steady hand he drew and signed his will, and gave direc- 
tions that in such case his body should be embalmed and sent to 
his relatives. 

A little party left the steamer late in the afternoon, and pro- 
ceeded to the outskirts of the village, where, in a beautiful spot 
under the shade of palms, the ground was selected and measured. 
Standing fifteen paces apart, the antagonists discharged their 
pistols simultaneously, without effect. At the second fire, the 
Californian brought his left hand to his forehead, and the red 
current was seen to flow from between his fingers as he fell into 
the arras of his second. 

The major was now beside himself, actuated equally by a 
feeling of remorse and a regard for personal safety. Like 
Richard, he would have given his kingdom for a horse — nay, if 
he had possessed a kingdom, he would have given it for a mule 
— on which to escape into the wilderness. 

But the ship's surgeon, who was on the ground, upon examin- 
ing the wound, pronounced it only a concussion of the os frontis 
and a slight abrasion of the epidermis, suggestive of no serious 
consequences ; and as all the requirements of honor had been 



8 THE ROUND TRIP 

satisfied, everybody returned to the ship in a happy frame of 
mind. 

The doctor placed a patch upon the forehead of the Cali- 
fornian, which disfigured him somewhat on his appearance at 
dinner ; and the major did not discover, until the next day, when 
the plaster fell off, that there had been no wound, because there 
had been no bullets in the pistols, and no blood had been shed, 
because a sponge, saturated with red ink, had been used for the 
occasion. 



THE TRIP ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OF DARIEN, ETC. a 



CHAPTER II. 

The Trip Across the Isthmus of Darien — The Commerce 
OF THE Isthmus — Surveys for a Canal — Panama Rail- 
road Company — The Terminus on the Pacific Side — 
Panama — Its Eventful History — Commerce of the 
City — British Enterprise. 

Notwithstanding the insignificant appearance of Panama, 
its commercial importance cannot be overestimated. The Isth- 
mus of Darien holds two keys in its hands : one unlocking the 
commerce of the world on the Pacific side, and the other open- 
ing it upon the Atlantic. Eight lines of steamships keep their 
vessels loading and unloading at the wharves, and millions 
of treasure and merchandise are in almost daily transit. On 
the week of our arrival 80,000 bags — over 10,000,000 pounds 
— of coffee were shipped from Aspinwall, and this product is 
but a small part of its commerce. 

The country about produces little comparatively, yet a 
weekly shipment of 600 tons of bananas is not a trifling opera- 
tion. All the trade is now carried over the Panama Railroad, 
whose construction has multiplied it a thousand-fold. 

The Panama Railroad and the Pacific Mail Steamship Com- 
pany have been our great commercial missionaries in these latter 



10 THE RUtJND TRIP. 

days, already rivalling in their work the steam and railroad com- 
munication with the East by way of Suez. Should the road be 
succeeded by a canal, the victory would be complete. The sand 
might then be allowed to fill up the work of M. Lesseps, as ages 
ago it filled it after his predecessor under the Pharaohs, had 
accomplished a similar undertaking. 

It is now freely admitted that a canal across the isthmus of 
Darien is practicable, and the only question is one of expense. 
Two hundred million dollars are required ; and the great republic . 
that could spend $4,000,000,000 in a civil war, nearly one-half of 
which was, in one way or another, stolen by contractors and offi- 
cials, hesitates about this comparatively paltry sum ! If the work 
is ever accomplished, it w'ill be done by British capital, for the 
interest of British commerce that, with our concurrence of 
indifference, now dominates the globe. How mortifying is our 
commercial decadence ! While we quarrel about the personal 
claims of candidates for the Presidency and the small politics of 
the day, we do nothing for our commerce but fetter it with 
new shackles. All the attention we have given to our ever- 
changing tariffs with a view to "protection," has had the effect 
of protecting England and Germany in making them the carriers 
of the ocean. We argue that man can rise only by being made 
free, and that commerce can rise only by having its freedom 
taken away. This western continent is ours by the law of nature 
and the opportunity of neighborhood, and we reject the boon 
which Providence brings to our doors. 

England is our great rival, and Germany is becoming a rival 
not to be despised. Both these nations encourage their manu- 
factures, not by protecting mill-owners in order to keep out the 
goods of foreign nations ; not by protecting ship-builders in order 
that other people who can build cheaper ships may steal our 



THE TRIP ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OF DARIEN. ETC. n 

carrying trade, but they protect their subjects with the surest pro- 
tection — that of liberty: liberty to buy and sell every thing, 
merchandise and ships included, in the most favorable markets 
of their own selection. 

Still, in spite of the neglect of our government, steamships 
and railroads are introducing our manufactures on the west 
coast of North and South America, while England is bringing 
by far the greater quantity of cheaper goods in cheaper 
ships. Our necessity in competition is to diminish the cost 
of both. Reduce our tariff so that the operatives of Lowell 
can live at the same expense as those of Manchester, and 
repeal at once the odious registry laws, so that Americans 
need no longer be the only subjects — and I use the word inten- 
tionally — on earth who cannot own a steamship without paying 
one or two Delaware ship-builders whatever they see fit to de- 
mand for whatever kind of a ship they see fit to supply, and 
then we shall be on equal terms with England. This done, if 
the canal is constructed, we shall have the commerce and the 
carrying trade not only of the west coast of America, but of the 
world, in our hands. 

The late explorations for a canal across the Isthmus of 
Darien have been no improvements upon that made by our 
distinguished fellow-citizen, the late William Wheelwright, whose 
enterprises contributed so much to the prosperity of the South 
American republics. 

About the year 1825, Mr. Wheelwright ascended the Chagres 
River and took an informal survey of the isthmus, with a view 
of making a canal, or rather of demonstrating that the project 
was feasible. He selected almost the identical route now oc- 
cupied by the railroad, tracing a line, the greatest elevation of 
which was a litde over 200 feet. Lloyd Falmark, Gavella, 



12 THE ROUND TRIP. 

Courtines, and the various exploring expeditions authorized by 
the governments of England, France, and the United States, have 
succeeded no better, and if ever the project is carried out, it 
will doubtless be on the line of the first survey, unless the Nica- 
raguan scheme should be adopted. 

In the mean time, the Panama Railroad Company is in as- 
sured possession, and will maintain its power for many years to 
come. Its profits are very large notwithstanding the enormous 
taxation to which it is obliged to submit to meet the exactions 
of the government of New Granada. 

The greatest difficulty attending all enterprises in these 
regions rises from the instability of the administrations. The 
company made a bargain with the rulers who happened to be 
uppermost at the time, and received a concession, upon the con- 
dition of paying $250,000 annually; but in various ways, such as 
free transportation of troops, munitions, etc., the road is made to 
pay the government a sum equal to $1000 per day, a severe sub- 
traction from its receipts. 

It is the custom of the steamship company to forward its pas- 
sengers and fast freight immediately by railroad to Panama, in 
time to meet the connecting steamer — the balance of the cargo 
being more leisurely carried over, to be shipped in the succeed- 
ing one. 

Our rate of progress was not rapid, nor did we regret its 
slowness. Amidst tropical verdure and jungles surely breathing 
miasma in the rainy season, and along the banks of the Chagres, 
now almost dry, we wound at the rate of twelve miles an hour, 
the whole distance being forty-eight miles to the terminus on the 
Pacific. A few wretched villages, inhabited by half, quarter and 
other fractional breeds of the Indian, negro and Spanish races, 
skirted the road. We occasionally stopped to take water for the 



THE TRIP ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OF DARIEN, ETC. 13 

engine and fruit for ourselves, in which novelty many indulged 
freely, and fortunately without inconvenience ; but the practice 
is not to be commended. 

Mr. Mozly, the superintendent of the road, was on board 
the train, and was never weary in answering the questions, 
for which he had ready replies, as they had doubtless been 
often proposed to him before. Nevertheless, our obligations 
were as great as if he had been catechised for the first 
time. He is the agent of the Panama Railroad and the Pacific 
Mail Steamship Company, these corporations being connected 
with each other in some way mysterious to the uninitiated, but 
doubtless satisfactory to those most interested. 

Totally different is the appearance of the ancient city of Pan- 
ama from the mushroom town of Aspinvvall. It is built of stone 
and brick, in distinction from adobe and palm-leaf thatch. Shorn 
of its former splendor and wealth, now squalid and poor, it 
still presents an appearance of solidity defying the total ex- 
tinction which a tempest might bring upon the other town in 
an hour. 

The streets are paved — if huge, irregular bowlders may be 
styled pavements — the houses are of a thickness intended to 
ward off the intense heat, and churches, abundant in all Spanish 
towns as in the city of Brooklyn itself, although many of them are 
dilapidated and despoiled of their former glory, remain in suf- 
ficient preservation to make them worthy of notice. 

For us, the building of greatest architectural merit was the 
Grand Hotel, where we were pleasantly located for two days 
awaiting the readiness of the " China " to receive us on board. 
The weather was far from oppressive, and the time passed very 
agreeably in walks by day about the town and in evening strolls 
upon the Alameda, a long promenade built upon the seawall, 



14 THE ROUND TRIP. 

against which the waves came tumbling over long reaches of 
coral reefs. 

The present city, dwindled from its former prosperity to a 
town of 10,000 inhabitants, is more than 200 years old, and yet 
is young compared with its predecessor. Old Panama, vestiges 
of which may still be seen overgrown with jungle, now the abode 
of serpents and wild beasts, was founded in 1518. It was the 
earliest possession of Spain on the shores of the western con- 
tinent, and at the time of its destruction contained more than 
7,000 houses, 2,000 of them built in the style of regal palaces, of 
the finest stone and the variegated woods so abundantly produced 
in this country. The walls of these sumptuous residences were 
adorned with costly paintings ; statuary imported from Italy 
graced their courts surrounded by gardens of rare exotics, and 
the streets, tastefully laid out, were shaded with palms. It con- 
tained numerous monasteries and convents, and its churches ex- 
ceeded in magnificence those of the old world. All this was 
produced by an abundance of silver and gold, dug not only from 
the earth, but chiefly stolen from the natives reduced to slavery 
by their cruel taskmasters. 

The day of retribution came. The greedy eyes of the buc- 
caneers were attracted to Panama, the stories of whose wealth 
had reached their ears. As the Indians had been the game 
of the Spaniards, so in their turn the conquerors became the 
prey of the English freebooters. After a terrible battle, old 
Panama fell into the hands of Morgan and his ruthless horde, 
on the 27th of January, 167 1. It was at once sacked and 
destroyed, the plunderers securing an immense boot}^, although 
the Spaniards had fortunately taken the precaution to place the 
valuable ornaments of the churches on board a vessel, which 
eluded the pursuit of the invaders. 



777^ TRIP ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OF DARIEX, ETC. 15 

When Morgan took up his march to return across the isthmus, 
his train consisted of 175 mules packed with treasure, and 600 
prisoners, men and women. Those who could not afford to pay 
the ransom demanded, were transported to Jamaica and sold as 
slaves. So totally was the city razed to the ground that the 
present and more favorable site, six miles further up the bay, was 
chosen for a new location. 

This, too, being attacked by the buccaneers from sea and 
land, at times suffered severely. Then came the separation from 
Spain, involving repeated capture, until at last a nominal inde- 
pendence was secured, which makes Panama, like all Spanish 
republics, the occasional theatre of riot and revolution, and will 
chain the wheels of progress so long as the chariot of liberty is 
drawn on its uncertain track by ignorance and superstition. 

The railroad terminating at Panama, where the water is too 
shallow to allow large vessels to approach the wharf, a steamboat 
and lighters are required to transport passengers and freight over 
a distance of three miles to the roadstead at Flamenco Island. 

This, although a source of profit to the road of more than 
$50,000 annually, is by no means a satisfactory- arrangement for 
the passengers and owners of merchandise. It is to be hoped 
that the company will soon see the advantages of complpng 
with the terms of their charter, and completing the road to a 
more convenient terminus, for as the means of saving no little 
time and expense, it will eventually contribute more profit than 
the comparatively slight gains from lighterage at present. 

The harbor is more secure than that of Aspinwall. where 

\-iolent northers frequently oblige steamers to put to sea. In 

the smooth waters of Panama such an emergency seldom arises. 

Here centres the trafiSc of the whole west coast of North and 

South America, most of it coming from the north in steamers of 



1 6 THE ROUND TRIP. 

the Pacific Mail Company, and from the south in those of the 
British Pacific Steam Navigation Company. 

This service of fifty-six well appointed steamers, sending its 
semi-monthly ships from England through the straits of Magel- 
lan, and thence distributing traffic from ports in various connec- 
tions of its own to the isthmus of Panama, owes its origin to the 
same energetic American whose name has been mentioned in 
connection with the first survey of the Panama route for a canal. 

In 1842, unable to obtain capital at home, Mr. Wheelwright 
formed this company in England, and brought out the first 
steamers, the " Peru " and the " Chile," that ever ploughed the 
waters of the Pacific. 

Here is another instance of British enterprise in grasping 
trade which we failed to secure for ourselves when the means 
lay in our power. We are a loud mouthed people. We 
talk of what we have done in carrying out the " Monroe doc- 
trine " by excluding foreign governments from our continent, 
while at the same time we surrender into their hands our com- 
merce — a greater power than is wielded by the scepters of their 
kings. The commerce of the Central American States, Mexico 
and South America, has more than doubled within the past three 
years. Forty-five thousand tons of sugar were shipped last sea- 
son from Peru, all for the English market. Being of a high 
grade it is virtually prohibited by our tariff. 

The coast line of the British Steam Navigation Company 
receives a subsidy of ^^1,800. Their ships costing one-third less 
than ours, this bonus secures to them an absolute monopoly. 



A COMFORTABLE OLD SHIP, ETC. ij 



CHAPTER III. 

A Comfortable old Ship — Settling a Feminine Dispute — 
" The Pacific Agitator " — Ports and Trade of Cen- 
tral America — Acapulco — Arrival at San Francisco. 

However ill-adapted to compete with more modern steamers 
in profitable business, the China was certainly a luxurious home 
for passengers. She possessed every requisite excepting speed, 
and fastidious must he have been who could find fault with the 
ample accommodations, well spread table, attentive service, and 
especially with the courteous captain who supervised all these 
comforts. 

No travellers can so well understand the requisites of patience 
and adaptability in a packet commander as those who have been 
placed in the position themselves. When in the early days of 
California gold hunting steamers were smaller and vastly over- 
crowded with all sorts and conditions of men, these qualities 
were of the most intrinsic value, but notwithstanding their best 
exercise, frequently of little avail. A ship was often a pande- 
monium of drunkenness and riot, from her departure until her 
arrival. Our captain had passed through all this experience, so 
that he was abundantly qualified to superintend the more civilized 
company now under his care. 

His was a calm philosophy, that settled a dispute between two 



1 8 THE ROUXD TRIP. 

elderly ladies who occupied the same stateroom. On a night 
when the weather was intensely hot. one of them, and our s\-mpa- 
thies were certainly with her, desired that the window should 
remain open. The other wished to have it closed. 

" I must have it open 1 "' exclaimed the first. 

" I will have it shut ! " cried her room mate. 

The altercation at length became so violent that it artracred 
the attention of the steward, who vainly attempted to quell the 
tumult. 

" I shall die if that window is shut ! " vociferated the occu- 
pant of the lower berth. " I shall die if it is open ! " screamed 
the lady overhead. 

" Well, ladies," said the patient fellow, who had no patience 
equal to the emergency, " I'll report to Captain Cobb, and see 
what he says." 

This he did accordingly, and he returned with the decision, 
which, to my mind, equals the judgment of Solomon in the case 
of disputed maternity. 

" Ladies," said he. knocking at the door, " the captain says 
I'm to open the port, so that the one who is to die with it open 
may die as soon as possible, and afterward I'm to shut it, so that 
the other will die, and then, ye see, you can't either of you dis- 
pute any more about it." 

With an exceptionally long voyage of twenty-three days still 
before us, we cast about in our minds every exj)edient to make 
it pass agreeably. Anticipating a pleasing variety in the frequent 
stoppages on the way, having congenial societ}* and a well- 
stocked librar}', our only want seemed to be news from the outer 
world. This we resolved to fabricate for ourselves. 

We established a newspaper styled the Pacific Agitator. It is 
true we had no printing press. The old Athenians had none, and 



TO 



Ian, and the i-- 
~oc Afflmim- wi 
- r'-^ncisoo, aiiv- -._ -^^■. 
- ' store, together vidi 
s- Tzt tiitois 



20 THE ROUND TRIP. 

contributions, and the illustrations were by no means of an in- 
ferior order. 

This being the " coffee season," comprising nearly five months 
of active trade, it was expected that we should call at several 
small ports in the Central American States to receive cargo. 
The delay was an unexpected pleasure rather than a troublesome 
inconvenience. 

We must confess that the oldest part of the continent was 
the least known and the most new to us. I am not ashamed 
to admit that I was ignorant, in common with so many of my 
countrymen at the North, of the political status and the re- 
sources of the countries lying between Mexico and South 
America. We have a general impression that the isthmus of 
Panama and its neighborhood is peopled by a set of half- 
breeds, whose principal business it is to quarrel with each other 
and with themselves — and in this we are, in the main, correct. 
But the opportunities of our voyage somewhat enlightened us 
respecting their nationalities and their commercial importance. 

Panama is the capital of a State of the same name, forming 
part of the confederation of New Grenada, or as it is sometimes 
called, the United States of Colombia. These comprise an area 
of three hundred and fifty thousand square miles, and contain 
two million seven hundred thousand inhabitants. Its chief ex- 
ports are gold, silver, coffee, cocoa, hides, tobacco, quinine, India 
rubber and straw hats, valued at from fifteen to twenty million 
dollars annually, and this trade naturally, as it grows, calls for a 
corresponding amount of imports from Europe and America in 
exchange. 

Although, by means of the Panama Railroad and the Pacific 
Mail steamship line, some of the profits are secured to the United 
States, most of them are in English hands, and the carriage is 



22 THE ROUND TRIP. 

It is thought that San Salvador and Honduras will be united 
with Guatemala, and that they will eventually bring Nicaragua 
and Costa Rica into their confederation. A good government 
being impossible for any of these States, a strong government is 
next in order. Self-government appears an impossibility for the 
Spanish race. 

The condition of affairs might have been very different on the 
Isthmus of Darien had success attended the Scottish Expedition 
of 1699. 

While Drake, Morgan, and other buccaneers had been 
intent upon invasion for the purpose of plunder, the honest 
Scots came to buy the ground from the aborigines, and, settling 
among them, endeavored to teach them the religion of Christ 
and the arts of peace. They numbered about four thousand in 
all, and were well fitted out with provisions and the tools of 
husbandry necessary to success. But internal dissensions, first 
incited by fanatics among them, who insisted upon a government 
founded on church polity, with the jealousy of the Spaniards, 
and the same feeling on the part of their own countrymen con- 
nected with the East India Company, who ridiculously imagined 
their riglits interfered with, soon brought the new colony to 
grief, and caused the final abandonment of the scheme. 

Had every thing gone well, the Anglo-S.ixon race, instead of 
the Latin, might now have peopled the isthmus, and we should 
have been able to solve the problem of the demoralization of 
Europeans in the tropics. We should have known if this is at- 
tributable to the fault of particular races, or to the physical 
weakness of mankind in general, when transported to uncon- 
genial climes. 

Our good ship, as intimated, makes no pretensions to speed 
She starts upon her course at the rate of eight knots per hour, 



A COMFORTABLE OLD SHIP, ETC. 23 

having on board 700 tons of coal, Soo tons of cargo, and 80 
cabin passengers, 100 steerage passengers, and a crew of 120 
men, 100 of whom are Chinese. These men are excellent fire- 
men, cooks, and waiters, and although not equal to Europeans 
in point of seamanship, answer all the requirements of a steam- 
ship in this respect. They are orderly and generally obedient. 
When they are otherwise, it is only necessary to tie them to- 
gether with their tails, and mutiny is instantly quelled by a 
threat of cutting off these hair pennants. Their wages are about 
half those that white men demand, and the same ratio holds 
good for their food. 

Our first stop was at Puntas Arenas, the chief seaport of Costa 
Rica, which we reached on the 31st of March, two days after 
leaving Panama. It has one of the best harbors on the coast. 
As for the town, the enchantment lent by distance was quite 
lost when, on landing, we were nearly stilled with the heat, and 
saw nothing but a few huts and their wretched inhabitants. Of 
this town, and of the others at which we touched, it is sufficient 
to say that Aspinwall is a favorable specimen. There are about 
six hundred people in the village, a few of whom are employed 
in carr}'ing coffee to the wharf and lightering it to the ship, 
while the others are actively engaged looking on. Here we re- 
mained two days, and received on board 9,150 bags of coffee; 
and proceeded to our next port of I.ibertad, on the coast of 
San Salvador. This is an open roadstead, and although a 
strong iron wharf projects far out into the sea, the surf rolls in 
unceasingly, causing the boats to toss and surge in a style that 
renders loading, and even landing of passengers, difficult, and 
at times dangerous. Receiving here 900 bags, we next called 
at San Jose, a port of Guatemala, about the same size as Libertad, 
botli smaller in population than Puntas Arenas, but all of com- 



24 THE ROUND TRIP. 

mercial value as ports of entry to their respective republics. 
Here we received 2,500 bags, and sailed on the 5th of April, hav- 
ing completed all our business with the Central American States. 
Fortunately, the Americans have control of the carrying trade of 
these more northern republics, although the percentage of mer- 
chandise imported is in favor of Great Britain. 

A Spanish merchant, who took passage with us at San Jose, 
says that this is, in great measure, owing to the readiness of 
the English to comply with the wishes of buyers by packing 
goods, according to their desire, for mule carriage ; whereas the 
New York or San Francisco merchants tell them to take the 
large bales and boxes and pack them to suit themselves. *' Our 
people," he naively remarked, " do not like so much trouble. 
They prefer other people should take it for them." 

When we consider that the population of all this region num- 
bers three millions, who have so much to give us in return in cof- 
fee, indigo, and other products — coffee alone amounting to 25,000 
tons annually — we surely should endeavor to secure such a 
valuable trade. There is no limit to the production of coffee in 
the Central American States. 

We made no stop at any of the Nicaraguan ports, but kept 
on our way to Acapulco, where we arrived on the 9th of April, 
for coaling purposes. 

This is a town of modern decadence from ancient commercial 
prosperity. Like Panama, it has the remains of architectural 
splendor gone to even greater decay. Its port must have been 
formed by some volcanic freak of upheaval and explosion into its 
present commodious basin. In its safe and land-locked harbor, 
a hundred ships may ride quietly at their moorings in its smooth 
waters, while tempests rage and seas lash the shores without. 

The Spaniards discovered it at an early date of their con- 



A COMFORTABLE OLD SHIP, ETC. 25 

quest, and put it to a practical use. Being only 180 miles south- 
west from the City of Mexico, which conducted its business with 
Spain from Vera Cruz, Acapulco became the depot of Spanish 
trade with the Manila colonies. Here were fitted out the galleons 
which often became such valuable prizes for the buccaneers, 
but more frequently carried their treasures of silver safely to 
the Indies, and brought in return silks and spices, to be trans- 
ported overland to Vera Cruz. When they arrived, the Mexi- 
can merchants assembled at great fairs, that were held for com- 
petition, and business must have been infinitely more active 
than at present. Now, a Pacific Mail steamer occasionally calls 
to receive her coal, while her passengers do a little shopping for 
oranges and bananas. 

In the rainy season, the high hills, sloping down to the bay 
on all sides, are covered with verdure. In the ravines we could 
see cultivated estancias and groves of trees, whose abundant 
yield supplied the market with delicious fruit. Having ever}' 
thing so liberally bestowed upon them by nature, the people 
have no necessity to labor to support existence. Lying upon the 
ground or swinging in hammocks, they doze through days and 
nights all merged together in their estimate and employment of 
time. Too lazy to be vicious, too ignorant to be responsible, 
their future cannot be one of punishment or reward. We can 
imagine nothing in reserve for them but annihilation. 

Leaving Acapulco, we soon steered in a more northerly 
direction, coming into a cooler atmosphere, and though gen- 
erally at a greater distance from the land, higher peaks became 
visible, and sometimes the smoke of volcanoes ascending 
from their craters. The whole shore assumed a wilder and 
more desolate aspect, and for the remaining ten days of the 
passage there was little or no verdure to attract the eye. We 



26 THE ROUND TRIP. 

had left the tropics. When within four hundred miles of our 
port, a fierce northwester, culminating in a gale unexpected on 
an ocean supposed to be always pacific, materially impeded the 
China's progress. At last, however, on the twenty-third day 
from Panama, and thirty-fifth from New York, the Golden Gate 
was before her, and on the morning of the 21st of April she 
anchored in the splendid bay of San Francisco. 

In this account of the voyage, I have endeavored to give 
some commercial information, which, it is hoped, may prove 
of value. All that we need, and all that we ask from our 
Government, is the freedom in trade that is accorded to other 
nations, so that every American citizen may stand upon equal 
terms with their subjects. Our own energy can accomplish the 
the rest. This investigation has been the chief piece de resistance 
of the narrative — the little entremets of the trip, made up of the 
episodes of daily life, serve to garnish it, so that the whole may 
be digested as a palatable meal. I have desired, withal, to show 
what resources may make a passage enjoyable, and can hold a 
a company of eighty people in a bond of union strong enough to 
overcome the little distinctions of society, born of exclusiveness, 
but driven out of existence by mutual forbearance and good will. 
We all agreed, and I hope my readers will be of the same mind, 
that there is a pleasant variety in coming to San Francisco, via 
Panama. 



CALIFORNIA. 



27 



CHAPTER IV. 



CALIFORNIA. 



A Fable — A Reminiscence of 184S — The Comparative 
Production of Gold and Silver — The Career of James 
C. Flood, one of the Bonanza Kings. 

The hungry Seyd Ibrahim drew his bow, and his successful 
shaft brought down a great bird to his feet. Ravenous for food, 
he tore open his prey, and to his astonishment discovered a 
sparkUng diamond in its maw. " Now, God be praised ! " he 
exclaimed, as he threw the bird away, " for we are rich ! " 
" Can we eat the diamond ? " asked the practical Zulima. Ibra- 
him's senses returned to him, and the fortunate pair first made 
a hearty meal, and then, recovering their strength, were able 
to go to the bazaar with the jewel, which but for the food that 
accompanied it would have been of no more value than a 
stone. 

When California came into our possession we craved it for 
the advantage it might bring, not only as an extension of our 
boundary, but as a field for pasturage and agriculture, and for 
its forests of timber. Its mineral wealth did not enter into con- 
sideration, for it was undiscovered. As Ibrahim opened his 



28 THE ROUND TRIP. 

bird, so we forthwith began to open the country, and as he dis- 
covered his jewel, we became crazy over our unexpected gold. 
The hoe was abandoned for the pick. The cattle were allowed 
to range at their pleasure, the woodman ceased to penetrate 
the wilderness, ships were deserted to rot in the bay, and every 
body cried " now God be praised, for we are rich ! " 

Although not "a fort3'-niner," I have my reminiscences of those 
days. I happened to be at Manila in the spring of 1848, having 
arrived there by way of the Cape of Good Hope. Just then came 
into port the first ship that had succeeded in getting away from 
San Francisco — the Rhone. She brought the news of the gold 
discoveries, and fired the colony with the same intense desire 
that inflamed the Spaniards of the sixteenth century. The fever 
extended to China and down the coast to the Straits, where it 
met the flow of news rolling in from the East, and thus the whole 
world was made to feel the tidal wave. 

The captain of the Rhone told us that he was obliged to pay 
his sailors two hundred dollars a month to induce them to 
leave San Francisco. " I took off my hat then to Jack," said 
he. " Meeting an old shellback on the beach, I asked him if 
he did not want a voyage." "Where's yer ship?" he asked in 
the most independent style. *' There she is," I replied, meekly 
pointing to the vessel in the roads. " Here, what'll you take 
for your old craft ? " asked Jack as- he pulled a handful of nug- 
gets from his pocket, " I'll buy her of you ! " 

John A. Sutter was the hero of a revolution in civilization. 
The first discoverer of the gold at the " Mill Race " is yet living, 
and his fate is an example of those who in adding to the wealth 
of nations have impoverished themselves. He has still his un- 
audited claims before the government for supplies furnished the 
arrny in the early days when by his means the infant settlement 



CALIFORNIA. 29 

was preserved from Indian depredations. If the matter ever 
reaches a Congressional Committee, it is quite possible that it 
will be rejected on the same ground with the French claims — • 
that the claimants are all dead, and if he is not dead, he ought 
to be, for he is very old. It is worthy of remark that a member 
of Congress is never too old to get his mileage and pay. 

It is now only thirty-one years since Sutter's men brought 
him a handful of glittering sand found in the mill sluice, and 
from that day till the close of 1878, the product of gold and 
silver has been one thousand five hundred and eighty nine mil- 
lions from the Pacific Slope. It is a common mistake to sup- 
pose that the production is regularly increasing. 

From an interesting table of statistics compiled by the editor 
of the San Francisco Commercial Herald, it appears that the 
greatest yield was in 1853, namely, sixty-eight millions. In 
1875 it was the smallest since 1848, namely, seventeen million 
seven hundred thousand. 

But I believe with Zulima that the flesh of the bird is of more 
value than the diamond it had swallowed, and intend to show 
how the wealth of California is to be found in its soil rather than 
under its mountains and in its gulches. 

One day we called upon James C. Flood. Who has not 
heard of the raid of Flood & O'Brien on the Bank of Cali- 
fornia and the tragic death of Ralston consequent upon that 
time of excitement? 

I asked Mr. Flood if all this was true. 

" All was a lie," he said. " Ralston was a good fellow ; he died, 
I don't know how — well, the coroner's jury gave its verdict, but 
I tell you this : I did not drive him to it. He owed me a great 
deal of money, and only two days before his death he told me 
he was in trouble, and asked me not to present a check of his 



30 THE ROUND TRIP. 

for $200,000 which I held. I kept my word, and when I heard 
of the run on the bank, although I knew it would go down, I 
did not call for my money. He was my friend. Some news- 
papers are not my friends, for they lie about me." 

Mr. Flood is a representative miner, I mean of the successful 
class. The bar-room loafer, the convict, the suicide represents 
an infinitely larger constituency. 

This fortunate gentleman is somewhat over fifty years of age, 
of robust appearance and pleasing address. He was ready to 
answer all our questions, and, moreover, volunteered some inci- 
dents of his personal history, which I reproduce in brief ; for 
people like to hear how a " self-made man " made himself out 
of nothing into a golden image of the value of twenty-five mil- 
lions of dollars. 

"I came out here," he said, " in 1849. I was a coachmaker 
by trade, and readily adapted myself to the business of a car- 
penter, at which I earned sixteen dollars a day. But I had the 
gold fever like all the rest, and so I struck out for the mines. 
Well, we had a rough time that winter. It was as much as we 
could do to dig ourselves out of the snow without digging much 
gold. But I stuck to it and I made three thousand dollars. I 
thought I was rich, and so I went home and took my family out 
west, where I bought a farm. I soon found that three thousand 
dollars was not a fortune. Accordingly we sold out, packed up 
and came here again. I went into business, was successful at 
first, then went under owing $4,000. I earned that money and 
paid up. From one thing to another I got into the Hale and 
Norcross mine, and that gave me my first big start. I've been 
in the mining business ever since. I never bought a share of 
stock that I did not pay for and take away. I never sold a 
share short. Mining is a risk, any way, but it is a risk almost 



CALIFORNIA. 31 

always the wrong way to people who speculate on margins. 
You ask me about the Bonanzas. Well, I believe in them ; but 
you need not pin your faith on me. I've a right to do what I 
like with my own money. I've got a comfortable home for my 
little family, and so I spend what I don't want for marketing 
and clothes in Bonanzas. As to these mining boards, I don't 
care if the Stock Exchange closes to-morrow and there is never 
another share bought or sold. If the mines fail, why then I'll 
take the money I've got out of them and set the timber on fire, 
and that will be the end. No, don't go, I'm not busy — I'm 
never busy now. I was busy when I had to scull round to get 
five dollars. Now I can afford to pay my clerks and talk with 
my friends." In this style he ran on for an hour or two, and 
then our own business called us away, for we do not possess 
twenty-five millions of dollars, and cannot afford to pay clerks 
for collecting our money. 



,2 THE ROUND TRIP. 



CHAPTER V. 

Leaving for Southern California— The Pious Agricul- 
turist — Great and Small Farmers — Irrigation — Ridi- 
cule of Fever and Ague— A California Editor's Home- 
stead. 

On the 19th May, crossing the ferry to Oakland, we took 
a palace car at 4:30 p.m., bound on a trip over the South- 
ern Pacific Railroad. It may be premised that this road, which 
had been gradually extending for the last five years until it had 
reached Yuma, in the territory of Arizona, a distance of seven 
hundred and fifteen miles, is the conception and work of Gov- 
ernor Stanford and his associates, who built the Central Pacific 
and various other lines in the state, and whose surplus capital is 
always expended in public works of this character. They are 
regarded as the monopolists of California by some who consider 
themselves oppressed. I do not suppose that such people could 
be convinced of their error unless the rails should be taken up, 
the grades destroyed, and travel again performed by wagons and 
pack mules. Doubtless these few gentlemen have made princely 
fortunes by the success of the Central Pacific, which would not 
have been built but for their energy and perseverance. They have 
developed the resources of Nature, and Nature has rewarded them 



LEA VING FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, ETC. -7^2, 

for their outlay. Their present enterprise is of a similar char- 
acter. They are again planting ties and rails, the seeds of an- 
other fortune, if the enormous outlay is successful. I do not 
believe that their harvest will be a failure, but should it prove 
so, will the men who envy their past profits repay them for their 
future losses ? Not so. Capital takes its risk, and in either 
case is entitled to its results. 

All days are delightful here. We are in love with the climate 
excepting when we have a lover's quarrel, and the weather gives 
us a cold shoulder as the northwesters whistle through the 
streets of San Francisco. But these little " spats " are soon 
over, and the gentle zephyrs woo us again as they did on this 
charming afternoon. We were drawn for miles through gardens 
and orchards, passing the country seats of the wealthy and the 
more modest dwellings of less pretension in the display of grassy 
lawns and smoothly rolled driveways, but whose taste was equally 
shown in the ornamental culture of roses and other flowers of 
sweet perfume everywhere abounding. When we see the vines 
twining about a poor man's house, and shade trees planted by his 
line of road, vve place a higher estimate on his character than on 
that of his neighbor who in his bare walls is mean to himself, to 
those around him, and to posterity. Where there were contri- 
vances for artificial watering everything was green and luxuriant, 
but as we emerged into the open country the unusual dryness of 
the previous winter showed its impress upon the soil. 

" I don't know if Providence does it accidentally or on pur- 
pose," said one of the inhabitants, " but the rain is beneficial to 
the soil and not hurtful to man ; when it comes it is generally 
in the night, and I think that would be a good arrangement 
everywhere, as people would get all the advantage without being 
put to inconvenience." 

3 



34 THE ROUND TRIP. 

At the East the fields assume their most exquisite verdure in 
May and June. Here they were putting off their green dress and 
clothing themselves like autumn. The grain was fast ripening, 
and was nearly ready for the sickle. It is cut when ours is 
scarcely out of the ground. It needs no barns or storehouses. 
It lies where it grew until it suits the convenience of the farmer 
to thresh it and carry it to market. He knows that no rain will 
fall, for he can trust Providence, who in summer, as in winter, 
arranges every thing for the good of the Californian. " The Lord 
did seem to go back on us this year," said the old farmer, " for 
we shall have only a small crop ; but he is making up for it," 
added the pious man, " by letting 'em get into a war in Europe, 
so that the price of wheat is likely to be doubled. He does all 
things well ! " 

Gradually our speed was diminished as we ascended the 
grade surmounting the '' Coast range," that little extra backbone 
running from north to south through this part of the State, and 
■dividing the last slope to the Pacific from the great valley of San 
Joaquin and its southern continuations. In the dry season the 
^water slope fares better than that inclining to the valleys, for 
:the mists distilled from the sea lend it their gentle influence in 
almost every month of the year. There are the prolific vegeta- 
;ble gardens of the thrifty Italians and Chinese who supply the 
daily San Francisco market. They are in a small line of busi- 
ness compared with the rancheros of many thousand acres, but 
they manage by hard toil to gather in a sure harvest of dollars 
in return for their light truck. If the receipts of the " Italian 
market " could be estimated, they would be found to swell to an 
enormous amount, divided among these small farmers, who are 
independent of the large landholders. 

The land of the interior, where irrigation is a necessity, nat- 



LEAVING FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, ETC. 35 

urally falls into the possession of those who are able to improve 
it. The farmer of moderate means is obliged either to take up 
his quarter section in a district where, in a dry season, his crop 
may be a total loss, or to avail himself at higher prices of land 
reclaimed by capitalists. It is cheaper for him to acquire by the 
last method a small property of forty acres than to be the owner 
of three times the area free of cost. To say nothing of the 
comparatively small productions from land dependent solely 
upon rain in ordinary seasons, experience has demonstrated that 
they are absolute failures in three years out of ten. Unfor- 
tunately the year 1877 was one of them. Some large proprietors 
and many small landholders on the uplands became bankrupt, 
but all farmers of either class whose soil was irrigated profited 
by the misfortunes of their neighbors. 

We descend rapidly from the Coast Range elevation to the 
San Joaquin Valley. This is one of the greatest agricultural 
districts of California, a plateau including the Tulare and, the 
Kern Valleys, geographically appertaining to it, three hundred 
miles in length, and an average of thirty-five in width, not com- 
prising the bench hills mounting on either side to the coast and 
Sierra Nevada ranges. If Providence would contrive every 
thing to suit Californians it would make every man a millionaire 
without labor, and every stock gambler among them a successful 
operator. 

Unfortunately for this people, however, nature has left a little 
something for them to do. They have a magnificent climate, an 
atmosphere of elastic health, gold and silver mines, and rich soil 
capable of producing the utmost that Mother Earth can bestow. 
For the gold and silver the Californian has always been willing 
to dig, but he has asked of the soil to yield its increase with the 
smallest demand upon him for labor. He has not ploughed the 



36 THE ROUND TRIP. 

land, but he has scratched the dirt, carelessly dropped his seed, 
expecting an abundant crop, which in this way he sometimes 
gets ; and then he is not satisfied, for he is apt to make the field 
do its own work afterward as a " volunteer." Eastern farmers 
come out here and lecture the Calfornian. They tell him he is 
exhausting the ground by repeated sowing of wheat. He says 
he knows that, but land is plenty, and when it is exhausted he 
will go for more. They tell him to plough deeper for a moister 
soil. He says that is all nonsense. It may be necessary in 
Massachusetts, but it is not so here. It takes too much time 
and labor. In short, he will receive no lesson from any thing 
but a good square ruinous drought. That is the lesson he has 
had, and he has resolved to profit by it. 

Here, now, is this beautiful far-famed San Joaquin Valley, 
seven years out of ten nodding its myriads of wheaten heads 
in the breeze, ready to fall before his hand, and to be garnered 
for the market — now a scorched and desolate plain. Provi- 
dence; did not send down its rain, nor has it made a sufficiency 
of streams to gush from the canons on either side and fertilize the 
valley. The Californian must do it himself, and when he finds 
he must do a thing he does it with a will. 

A variety of plans for irrigation are now contemplated, but 
they all look to watering this immense tract of land by taking 
supplies from the Kern and Tulare Lakes at the southern end 
of the valley, and carrying them down to the north, diffusing 
their life-giving influences over the whole surface. That this 
will be done within two or three years there can be little doubt, 
and then the annual yield of the State, instead of 700,000 or 
800,000 tons, will be something incalculable. Then California 
will show its true wealth, and its mining will be scarcely worth 
considering. Out of its population of 750,000, not more than 



LEAVING FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, ETC. 37 

150,000 engage in agriculture. There are more people working 
in the mines of Nevada than are cultivating the ground of Cali- 
fornia, and California is larger than all New England, New York, 
New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, possessing more arable land, if 
reclaimed and irrigated, than all of them combined. 

During the night, we passed through the property of Messrs. 
Muller and Lux, the most extensive real estate owners in the 
valley. Here is a farm seventy-three miles in length by twenty 
in width. If a poor man owned one hundred and sixty acres of 
it, it would be worth nothing to him, as part of it is swamp land 
about Lake Tulare that he could not drain, and part of it a 
desert sand, that he could not irrigate. But to these capitalists 
it is valuable, because they can cause the two unproductive parts 
to fructify each other by means of canals. At present, while 
engaged in this enterprise, they content themselves with raising 
a few thousand acres of alfalfa, and with the pasturage of their 
eighty-five thousand head of cattle and forty thousand sheep ! 
One single straight fence on their property is seventy-three miles 
long. 

Now, this has the appearance of "gobbling up land." But 
when the small number of inhabitants and the vast area of. terri- 
tory in the State are considered, and especially when the result 
of this speculation is inevitably division after improvement pre- 
paratory to cultivation, it will be seen that the gobbling is for 
the general good. Consulting the early history of New York 
and New England, we find that the territory was ceded by the 
Crown in patents to a few individuals. Property there has been 
divided and sub-divided, until one hundred acres is considered 
a large farm. So in the future it will be here. 

We travelled as far as Lathrop, eighty-three miles on the 
Central Pacific. At this point the Southern Pacific branches 



,8 THE ROUND TRIP. 

off in a southerly direction, passing Merced fifty-seven miles 
further on our way. This is the railroad terminus of the best 
route to the Yosemite. Tourists here take the stage for the two 
remaining days of that journey. When we took the excursion 
five years ago, part of the travel was done on horseback or on 
foot, and I imagine that the present more comfortable mode of 
locomotion has not added to enjoyment. A little hardship gives 
a zest to pleasure. If any one entertains the intention of making 
this trip, he can readily follow us to Merced. Here he may part 
from our company until he has made the Yosemite excursion. 
He should go into the valley after visiting the big trees at 
Mariposa, remain there a week to get some small idea of its in- 
comparable grandeur and beauty, returning by way of Coulters- 
ville. In this way the Yosemite and Southern Californian jour- 
neys may be combined to the greatest advantage. 

At five o'clock on the morning after the departure from San 
Francisco, we left the train at Bakersfield, a small town three 
hundred miles distant on the road. It was a pueblo of the old 
Mexicans, and after the cession of the country to the United 
States, was squatted upon by "pikes," a set of poor whites from 
Pike County, Missouri, and a few negroes, whom they brought 
with the intention of maintaining the domestic institution. Here 
was a rare chance for a miscegenous production of humanity by 
the admixture of these immigrants with the "greasers" and the 
Indians. The result of the experiment was that the new-born 
population possessed about one-fourth part of manhood. I do 
not know why the Pikes should have selected this spot, unless 
because of its swampy proclivities to fever and ague, their favor- 
ite disease. Gradually a better immigration from the North 
ousted them, drained the marshes, and made it a comparatively 
healthy and thriving little town. There is still enough of the 



LEAVING FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, ETC. 39 

fever left in August and September to satisfy the few original 
settlers, but for those who do not supplement " the shakes " 
with bad whiskey, there is little danger now to be apprehended 
from malaria. " It never was much anyway," said one of the 
Pikes j " all a feller had to do was to take sixty grains of quinine 
when the fit came on, and then take forty grains of calomel to 
work that off ; afterward he wanted to get about nine ounces of 
iron into his blood to strengthen himself up, and then he was all 

right. D n the shakes ; I ain't afraid of 'em ! " 

We drove first to the residence of Mr. Chester, the editor of 
the Southern Califorjiian. Mr. Chester resides in a pretty 
country house, a mile from the village, where he has a little farm 
of seven hundred and fifty acres, all in a high state of culti- 
vation. In his small garden were ten acres of grapes. lie 
does not trouble himself to pick them, but sells them on the 
vines to the fruit dealers for $1,000 per annum. Then, there is 
an orchard of peaches, another of cherries — trees bearing in 
three years after planting the pits. Did he expect us to believe 
it ? Yet it was not more wonderful than many other things. 
He did not care for his garden or his orchards, but he thought no 
little of his wheat, turning out forty bushels to the acre, and two 
crops at that, one of them a volunteer. But his chief delight 
was his alfalfa, ten tons to the acre, worth $18 per ton, and five 
annual crops ; four hundred acres were in alfalfa. From one 
lot of one hundred and twenty acres he realized last year $6,000. 
Beside his wheat and alfalfa, he has one hundred and twenty 
acres in barley, yielding sixty bushels to the acre. These are 
products of a " small farm," and I imagine the profits exceed 
those of the Soiithcni Californian, although it is an exceedingly 
well-conducted journal, edited by Mr. Chester, with the sole view 
of furthering the agricultural interests of the country. 



40 THE ROUND TRIP. 

We drove on four miles, to one of the ranches of Messrs. 
Haggin & Carr. These gentlemen own one hundred and forty 
thousand acres in the San Joaquin Valley, thirty thousand of 
which they have already irrigated and prepared for cultivation. 
On this property they have expended $650,000, digging one 
hundred and fifty miles of canals. It is divided into several 
ranches, the one we were to visit containing six thousand 
acres. Driving two miles from the residence of Mr. Chester, 
we entered the domain of the " Bellevue " ranch. Two thou- 
sand acres were taken in last year. At present, there are 
only four thousand under full cultivation. The force em- 
ployed consists of one hundred and fifty-five whites and ninety 
Chinamen, who receive on an average one dollar per diem and 
their food. Three hundred mules and horses are kept at work, 
eight thousand head of cattle are on the place, a flock of twenty- 
two thousand sheep occupying the uncultivated range. We 
drove through alternate lots of wheat, barley, and alfalfa for 
three miles before reaching the house. One of the proprietors 
received us courteously, and entertained us at luncheon. Al- 
falfa, too, was his pride and delight. Every living creature on 
the ranch, excepting man, feeds on alfalfa. The hogs, as well 
as the horses, mules, and cattle, live on it when green, and fatten 
on it when dry. Its roots strike more than six feet into the soil, 
and it never requires replanting unless the ground is broken up. 
While every year there are five crops of alfalfa, there are two 
only of wheat and barley ! The income of such products is, of 
course, very great ; but as yet the expenses are enormous, for 
it is the intention to reclaim the whole one hundred and forty 
thousand acres, and then the property will be for sale " in small 
lots to suit purchasers." In the meantime, the expenses exceed 



LEAVING FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, ETC. 41 

one thousand dollars per day ; so that the balance can hardly 
be in favor of profit. 

Pleased and instructed by our visit to the Bellevue ranch, 
we returned to dine with Mr. and Mrs. Chester, whose cheerful 
entertainment pleasantly closed the day. One little episode pre- 
ceding dinner diverted us. Hearing two or three reports from a 
gun not far from the house, our hostess quietly assured us by 
saying that a man was shooting chickens. " When we want tur- 
keys or chickens for dinner," she said, " we always shoot them, 
for there are hundreds of them all over the place — they live on 
the alfalfa." We returned at a late hour to the " Arlington 
Hotel," to be in readiness for an early start in the morning. 
Our sleep was pleasant, for in our dreams we were cradled in a 
ten thousand acre lot of alfalfa. 



42 



THE ROUND TRIP. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The " Corkscrew " and " Loop " — The Autocrat of the 
Desert — Below the Level of the Sea — A Crazy Plan 
FOR Irrigation — The City of Yuma — The Onward March 
OF THE Southern Pacific Railroad — Future Prospects 
of Arizona — The Indians and their Chief. 

We again took the Southern Pacific train, reaching Caliente 
just as the rising sun darted his rays through the rugged peaks 
of the Sierras, among which we were about to climb a steep 
grade of one hundred and sixteen feet to the mile. Skilful 
engineers, after a study of three years to ascertain the most 
practicable route, at length made this selection. It is here that 
a spur of the Sierras, straying from the great chain, sweeps over 
to join the coast range, closing upon the valleys stretching from 
the Sacramento to the South. 

On the plains we speak of the line of a railroad. Here it is 
appropriately termed the " corkscrew," and beyond it is the 
" loop." The " corkscrew " section winds around the sides of 
the mountain exactly as its name indicates, affording passing 
and recurring views at all points of the compass. The " loop " 
is a still more wonderful exhibition of engineering ingenuity. 
First, the road runs through a tunnel, then bridges an abyss, and 



THE " CORKSCREW AND "LOOP," ETC. 43 

finally crosses over itself, seemingly tying a bow-knot with its 
iron straps. By these skilful devices, it is brought to an eleva- 
tion of three thousand five hundred and forty-nine feet above the 
plains. This is the Tehachape Pass, by which Fremont first 
crossed the mountain ridge between northern and southern 
California, 

The slow progression added to our enjoyment. On reach- 
ing the summit, the engine was allowed to take its ease, as 
pushed by the train without effort, it rapidly slid down the 
southern incline. This pass, with the desert beyond, forms 
the barrier between the grain-producing plains of the north, and 
the fruit-bearing valleys of the south, — for such is the general, 
although not universal distinction to be made. 

We were now on a desert utterly barren, a sea of sand with- 
out sufficient nourishment for a predatory grasshopper. One 
hundred miles of road is laid over it. The desert has a capital. 
States, territories and countries sometimes quarrel about their 
capitals, but there was no opposition in the desert district to 
Mojave. It has its railroad station, its county court, its church, 
its hotel, its business quarter, all in one house, the landlord 
being city government, judge, parson and everybody. The 
autocrat said that Mojave was already a place of considerable 
business as a mining depot, and " there is plenty of room for it 
to increase," he added, as he waved his hand around the circle 
of the sandy horizon. "Water is handy," he said. "Tain't 
more'n twenty miles off, and provisions are getting plenty since 
we've got the railroad. Before that we had to haul them a hun- 
dred miles." 

We breakfasted at Mojave, expecting under the circum- 
stances to be charged an exorbitant price for our meal, which 
was a very good one, and were agreeably surprised at the moder- 



44 THE ROUND TRIP. 

ate charge of seventy-five cents. That hermit of the desert is 
actuated by generous impulses, or he is sadly ignorant of his 
opportunity. 

Still journeying over the long reaches of sand, ribbed occa- 
sionally with reefs of rocks, we came to the tunnel under another 
cross range of hills. This excavation is more than a mile in 
length, and is shored with timber like a snow-shed. Boring 
the mountains for the last time — for we have passed through 
many tunnels on the way — we leave them and the Mojave desert 
behind, and look down upon the vineyards and orange groves of 
the southern valleys, where peeping through its vines and its 
orchards, we see the lovely Pueblo de Nuestra Sefiora de los 
Angeles. We will surely abide there a while on our return, but 
now let us finish our journey " to the front," as the Californians 
call it, to Yuma, in Arizona. 

We have yet before us two hundred and forty-five miles on 
the Southern Pacific road. From three o'clock in the afternoon 
until dark, we run through the valleys of Los Angeles and San 
Bernardino until the Gorgonio Pass is reached. This district 
thus far is easily watered and naturally productive, but extensive 
irrigation is required. That desirable improvement has been 
accomplished, a flume bringing water from a distance suf- 
ficient to supply ten thousand acres. This wooden canal, called 
a V from its shape, also brings logs and railroad ties, shooting 
them fourteen miles in half an hour. A man said that he had 
made the trip in a three foot boat, but he " felt like a hog in a 
trough riding to the devil, and did not care to try it again." 

The change was sudden from the green grass, the grain and 
the semi-tropical fruit trees of the valley. Our pathway was 
one of strong contrasts. Cultivation and desolation succeed each 
other continually, and we have again the desert before us, " the 



THE " CORKSCREW" AND "■LOOP;' ETC. 45 

^'t^^xV par excellence, if excellence means excelling all abomina- 
tions. But first we mount its arid wastes through the pictur- 
esque Gorgonio Canon. Moonlight lent its weird enchantment 
to the shadowy outlines of distant mountains dimly seen beyond 
the dark rocks through which the road was cut. The cold winds 
reached us from their snowy summits. " Cold is it ? " asked the 
brakeman, "Ye'll be begging for half a breath of it before 
morning." 

We realized this when we descended into what might 
be called " the valley of the shadow of death " — if there could 
be a shadow there. There is no object on this vast area, one 
thousand miles long, and from one to two hundred miles wide, 
capable of making a shadow. In the deserts of Africa there 
are oases with their shady palms and wells of living water ; 
here there is nothing but stunted sage brush and straggling 
spears of yellow grass. For miles not even these are to be 
seen ; nothing, absolutely nothing, but an everlasting waste of 
sand, bounded by the horizon or the bases of distant mountains, 
whose blue outlines have so often mocked the hopes of weary 
travellers doomed to perish for want of the water in their sight. 

This is the great American Sahara, which, although mostly 
in the limits of California, is called the " Colorado Desert," and 
has become familiar to the public through the proposition of Dr. 
Wozencraft. That enthusiastic gentleman has long been en- 
deavoring to persuade Congress to give the company he repre- 
sents a right to turn the Colorado River into the desert for the 
purpose of irrigating a few million acres, and making them 
profitable as farming lands. I have not heard a single individ- 
ual who has crossed this plain characterize this scheme as any- 
thing but insane, and now that we have seen it, I am fully of 
that opinion. 



46 THE ROUND TRIP. 

The valley was unmistakably at one time a bay of the sea, 
and if the experiment would not result in the destruction of the 
railroad, it could not be put to a better use than to make it revert 
to the original owner. This could be accomplished easily by 
cutting a canal only a few miles from the coast and letting in 
the Pacific Ocean, which is higher than the plain. Our track 
actually descended before reaching Yuma, to a depth of two hun- 
dred and fift3^-three feet below the sea level, and we have some 
marine shells picked up from the sand. 

There are stories told of a wreck that was found heVe not 
long ago, to prove that this was once a navigable sea. But such 
apocryphal legends are needless. In this case fact can sustain 
itself without the aid of fancy. The indications furnished by 
the shells and other outward appearances are made still more 
conclusive by the extraordinary depression of the ground, and 
by the fact that the water brought up from the low bottoms is salt. 

On the higher grade water has not yet been reached. At 
one station where we were delayed, men were boring an artesian 
well. They had perforated one hundred and eighty-five feet of 
sand, as dry at that depth as at the surface. 

One glance at Dr. Wozencraft's scheme should be sufficient 
to condemn it. The Colorado River, a stream whose importance 
has been greatly exaggerated, is not an eighth of a mile wide 
where it is crossed at Yuma, and is so shallow that it is only 
navigable for stern-wheel boats drawing less than two feet. Still, 
it is too valuable for purposes of navigation to be taken out of 
its bed. But supposing it turned on to this desert, it would be 
lost in almost the first acre of sand. The Mississippi would not 
wander far before it would be literally sucked in, as Congress 
would be metaphorically, if it should give its sanction to such an 
absurdity. 



THE ''CORKSCREW AND "LOOP,'' ETC. 47 

The Southern Pacific Railroad, from its point of leaving from 
the Central Pacific, has already been extended six hundred and 
thirty-two miles, to Yuma. When it is considered that about 
one-fourth of the distance is accomplished over an absolutely ir- 
reclaimable desert, where local traffic is reversed — the trains car- 
rying tanks of water for distribution at the stations — the question 
naturally arises, on what sources does the road depend for its 
profits ? An enterprise so vast, undertaken by men of such 
known ability, must have had its foundation in sound calcula- 
tion. 

We must remember that they have first their individual in- 
terests at stake. These are located in California and centred 
in San Francisco ; consequently, whatever is for the benefit of 
the State and its capital redounds to their own profit. It is 
clearly not for their advantage that any road from the East 
should find its terminus at San Diego, the extreme south of the 
State, Perhaps they would not care to have any other commu- 
nication with the Atlantic coast than that afforded by their own 
profitable Central Pacific, but as they are aware that a parallel 
road in a more southern latitude is inevitable, they have deter- 
mined to control its terminus and its traffic — in short, to bring 
the trade of the South to San Francisco, and to manage it in 
such a way that the new road shall be an advantage rather than 
a detriment to the old one. 

To accomplish this result it pays to traverse an unproductive 
desert. But this is not all. It is safe to predict the success of 
the Southern Pacific even if it should not reach any connection 
with the East. This is assured by the increasing importance of 
Arizona as a mining region. It is the purpose of this railroad 
company to secure the whole trade of Arizona for San Fran- 
cisco before any eastern communication is opened. When that 



48 THE ROUND TRIP. 

takes place it will join their road, and it will be too late to turn 
the stream of trafific from its western course. 

These considerations, with others of minor importance, fur- 
nish a sufficient answer to the question so frequently proposed : 
" How can men be such fools as to build a railroad across the 
desert ? " I am sure that we never should have thought it worth 
our while to visit Yuma by crossing it on mule-back, or by the 
still slower route of steamers around Cape St. Lucas, up the Gulf 
of California and the Colorado River, the usual way of getting 
here in twenty days' time, until this railroad was built. Now the 
same end is accomplished, if no stops are made, in thirty-six 
hours. What such rapid transit will do for Arizona, what 
impetus it will give to trade, what influx of population, what 
general prosperity to the territoiy, are all certainties of the im- 
mediate future. 

We reached the terminus of the line at seven o'clock in the 
morning, there being a mile of road yet to be constructed to the 
river bank. On this two or three hundred Chinamen were busily 
at work, and it was to be finished the next day to the river. I 
shall have something more to say about Chinamen by and by, 
but will only observe just now that railroads are very strong pro- 
Chinese arguments. It would have been impossible to build this 
road without their labor. 

The Colorado having since been spanned by a bridge, the 
road is now being extended along the banks of the Gila. Half 
way between Yuma and the Maricopa Wells, in the heart of a 
great desert, two thousand men are busy laying rails at the rate 
of two miles per day, pressing on we know not where. The 
present objective point is Maricopa Wells, i6o miles east of 
Fort Yuma, and 408 miles from Los Angeles. As Maricopa 
Wells is a mere watering spot in the great desert of Arizona, we 



THE ''CORKSCREW AND "LOOP," ETC. 49 

assume that the work is to be pushed further eastward, at first 
to Tucson, and then, perhaps, to the Gulf of Mexico, thus 
forming another transcontinental railroad. 

Two opposition wagons were ready to transport the pas- 
sengers for the remaining mile. " Git in here ! " yelled our 
driver ; " that darned cuss wants to skin you. He charges five 
dollars and I'll take you for three, if I do lose money by it." So 
we went with this self-sacrificing man and contributed to his 
poverty. 

Fort Yuma has a garrison of fifty or sixty soldiers, under 
command of Colonel Dunn, to whom, as well as to Major 
Ernest, we were indebted for kind attentions. It is situated on 
the California side of the Colorado, which is crossed by ferry to 
the city of Yuma, 

The city of Yuma — no pen can portray it ; no photography 
can reproduce it ; no painting can by coloring represent the 
sandy desert of its wide streets, the irregular blocks and 
scattered houses, the lazy Mexicans lolling about the grog- 
shops, and gazing wistfully at their contents ; the glare of the 
burning sun ; the total absence of trees, shrubs, grass, or any 
green thing to vary the monotony of sand and dust. This is 
Yuma, the thriving city, with its wealthy merchants, its newspa- 
per, its hotels, its court house, and probably its churches — al- 
though we did not happen to see or hear of them. This 
is Yuma, with its two thousand inhabitants, the frontier settle- 
ment on the v/est of Arizona, situated at the confluence of the 
Gila and the Colorado, one hundred and fifty miles from the sea 
by the course of the latter river, and one hundred miles in a di- 
rect line. By and by, when it increases in wealth and import- 
ance, as its opportunities indicate that it will, a more refined 
taste will change its present forbidding aspect. A few thousand 



50 THE ROUND TRIP. 

dollars will pay for abundant irrigation, avenues of trees will su- 
persede the shadeless streets, elegant houses rise upon the ruins 
of wretched abobes, and churches and schools will take the 
place of saloons and gambling dens. The poor Indians and the 
Mexican " greasers " will be drowned out by the coming wave of 
civilization, and in ten years from this time, whoever may read 
this description will say that it could not have been true of beauti- 
ful Yuma. 

The earliest occupation by the Spaniards of what is now 
Arizona, was in 1769, and the first American settlement was 
made in 1853. Until the recent discovery of silver no progress 
was made, and it was valued only as a military post. The 
whole territory now contains about thirty-five thousand whites, 
beside the Mexican and Indian population, amounting in round 
numbers to fifteen thousand more. The mining excitement is 
drawing reinforcements so rapidly that estimates are good only 
for to-day. Fabulous stories are told of the new bonanzas. 
There is a perfect mining furor among these people, who talk 
of the Comstock lodes of Nevada as " played-out pockets," and 
hold with the utmost sincerity to the faith that Arizona will be 
the greatest silver-producing district of the world. There is 
abundant proof that this mineral was known to exist here one 
hundred years ago, when mines were worked by Spaniards. It 
is also shown by exhumations from the mounds that the Aztecs, 
and probably races anterior to them, possessed the same knowl- 
edge and used it for their advantage. However great the amount 
of silver they may have produced in those early days, it fades 
into insignificance compared with what may be turned out by 
modern science and machinery. 

Do not be induced by any thing I have said to abandon a 
profession or trade that affords a decent subsistence and emi- 



THE "CORKSCREW" AND "LOOP,'' ETC. 51 

grate to Arizona to hunt for silver. Mining is a lottery in which 
more blanks are drawn than prizes. There are always plenty 
of fools, however, who will take tickets in it. Successful or not, 
they must all be fed. So the safest and best thing you can do, 
if, for health or a living, you wish to pass your days in the 
purest atmosphere of the continent, is to take up farming land 
in Arizona. This can be found in abundance in many parts of 
the territory, although every thing around Yuma is a desert. 
Thus you may have the benefit of mining without its attendant 
risk. Still there is an excitement in " prospecting " that at- 
tracts many good and useful citizens to the territory. They like 
the pursuit, whether they succeed or not, and they will either 
become rich and acquire interests in real estate, or they will lose 
all they have, and will not be able to get away. So both classes 
will remain, and, their families increasing, Arizona will doubtless 
soon be admitted as a State to the Union, and the Indians will 
disappear, as their race has always passed away before advanc- 
ing civilization. 

The principal tribes, most of whom are on reservations, are 
the Mojaves, the Maricopas, the Apaches, the Navajos and the 
Yumas. Of the last there were about fifteen hundred loitering 
around the town. They are a quiet, inoffensive set of beings 
now, though in times past warlike and ferocious. The men are 
tall and finely formed, and the women, when not disfigured by 
tattooing, are not remarkably repulsive. They are all fond of 
dress, that is, as far as they dress. In distinction from the 
habits of civilized life the men are much more vain of their per- 
sonal appearance than the women. They like to wear gaudy 
colored jackets and vests. Both sexes content themselves with 
the avoidance of absolute indecenc}', and all are literally sans 
culottes. The men wear long strips of bright calico attached to 



52 THE ROUND TRIP. 

their belts, trailing behind them to the ground as they march 
along, with the feeling of a Broadway beau fresh from the hands 
of his tailor. 

Visiting their camp, two miles from town, we called upon 
Pasqual, the chief of the tribe, a man apparently eighty years 
old. He sat upon his haunches, looking stolidly on as one 
of his wives was bruising mesquit beans in a rude mortar. 
The Yumas live chiefly on this bean, a sort of locust growing 
wild and abundant in the river bottoms. They also plant corn, 
squashes and melons, which they dry and preserve for winter 
use. These articles constitute their diet, excepting an occa- 
sional rabbit or fish. They do not care to go upon a reservation, 
but are quite satisfied with their present mode of life. 

When Major Ernest came forward and addressed the chief, 
the old man arose from his humiliating posture and assumed at 
once his natural dignity of mien. He shook hands in the most 
condescending manner, and uttered a few unintelligible words of 
welcome. " He has been a great rascal," said the Major, to 
his face, " a brave man, too, for he gave us lots of fighting 
before he came in and surrendered. Now he is quiet as a kit- 
ten. We can rely upon his word that he will give us no more 
trouble." The bright eyes of the old chief gleamed with satis- 
faction, for he seemed to know that something flattering was 
said about him. He grunted approval at the end of the Major's 
little speech, and shaking us again cordially by the hand, 
intimated that the audience was at an end, and we left him 
standing barelegged in front of his hut with an air of self- 
possession equal to that of a field-marshal or an emperor 



RIVAL TOWNS, ETC. rj 



CHAPTER VII. 

Rival towns in the San Bernardino Valley — Newspaper 
Enterprise — Paradise of Orange Trees — Intellec- 
tuality AND Laziness — Mormon and Roman Catholic 
Civilizations — The Mission of San Gabriel and its 
Good Wine. 

Beauty and deformity are alike intensified by contrast. The 
green carpets of the Swiss valleys owe their coloring to the 
rugged crags and eternal snows of the Alps above them, and 
those high surroundings seem more desolate when we turn from 
the verdant fields to look upon them than if they stood alone in 
the scope of our vision. Perhaps we have thus exaggerated the 
desolation of Yuma and the Colorado desert, and now on 
returning to the garden of Southern California, it may have 
acquired for our eyes new features of loveliness. Still, we have 
the best intentions to be honest to Nature in describing her lights 
and shadows. i, 

On our return from Arizona we alight at a small railway 
station called Colton. This city has five houses, a stable, 
a church and a printing office. Civilization has triumphed 
lately over the old custom of forming settlements in this part of 
the country. The prime necessity was once the grog shop — 



54 THE ROUND TRIP. 

now it is the press. The very first thing to be done in these 
days is to establish a local newspaper. Once it marched in to 
supply the demands of the people ; now the people are expected 
to come at the call of the newspaper. To discover the age of 
a town we need but to glance at the head of the newspaper 
columns. Thus the Colton Semi-Tropic, published every Satur- 
day by Scipio Craig — for that is the name of the editor — leads 
us to infer from its "Vol. i, No. 31," that the town is thirty- 
one weeks of age. This may not be exact to a day, but appear- 
ances indicate that it is a fair ground for estimate. We called 
upon Mr. Craig. Having written his leader and made up his 
paper and his form with the assistance of a little boy, he 
was busy working off his issue of May 26 with a hand 
press. It is intensely local, for the map of San Bernardino 
county, of which Colton is the capital, is stereotyped over a 
large space. There is a corner for politics — and the editor is 
politic himself, for he wants settlers, be they Democrats or 
Republicans ; there is also a summary of telegraphic news. 
But the animus, the strength, the true meaning of the Semi-Tropic 
is, " Come hither, ye immigrants ! This is the most favored 
spot in creation." 

It is on the line of the Southern Pacific Railroad, which 
might, if it had been so disposed, have run through the old town 
of San Bernardino, where there are four thousand inhabitants, 
or through the newer settlement of Riverside, of greater promise. 
But it did neither. Railroads have selfish ways. They study 
their own interests as individual men study theirs. Railroads 
own land upon their borders, and care more for them than for 
the lands of others. 

San Bernardino is four miles north and Riverside is eight 
miles south of Colton, I asked one of the oldest inhabitants 



RIVAL TOWNS, ETC. 55 

about these towns. He shook his head ; he " didn't like to say 
any thing agin his neighbors, but they have fever and ague 
considerable in San Bernardino, and the water ain't fit to drink 
at Riverside. Hows'ever, as I said, I don't like to say any 
thing agin 'em, some folks like them kind o' things — I don't ; 
that's all." 

As this impartial critic left us to form our own opinions we 
set out to see for ourselves, on some capital ponies, which car- 
ried us forty miles over the ground that day with ease. There 
is no difficulty in procuring good horses at reasonable prices in 
all the towns of Southern California. You may buy them for 
twenty-five dollars, or you may hire them for a few shillings. 

We first took a survey of Riverside. Crossing the river 
Santa Ana by a ford, we followed its banks under the guidance 
of Mr. Evans, the president of a land company formed for the 
purpose of colonizing the district. Eight miles above the town, 
two canals are opened from the river sufficient to irrigate twenty- 
five thousand acres of the property. Operations were begun 
only six years ago. Within that time — a newspaper, of course, 
being the precursor — a town of little gardens has been built in 
the centre of the rancho. Four hundred thousand dollars have 
been expended on canals and roads. An avenue one hundred 
and thirty feet wide and eleven miles long, with triple rows of 
eucalyptus and magnolia trees, has been laid out, and the land 
on each side, with abundant water privileges, cut up into forty- 
acre farms. Ten thousand acres have already been sold. 

"I shall make it a paradise!" exclaimed Mr. Evans, with 
justifiable enthusiam. 

Truly Adam and Eve never walked under such an avenue as 
this will be, and they never saw such orange groves as grow 
on its borders, or apples would not have tempted them. Think 



c6 THE ROUND TRIP. 

of ten thousand acres planted almost exclusively with orange 
trees, and the remaining fifteen thousand to be cultivated in 
the same way. Many of the Riverside colonists are " eddi- 
cated, intellectooal cusses," as an envious San Bernardino 
farmer termed them. Many of them are invalids, who have 
a little property, so that they are not obliged to work with their 
own hands ; most of them are a combination of ill-health, in- 
tellectuality, 'and comfortable circumstances. Orange culture 
is eminently adapted to their condition and circumstances. 
They can sit on the verandas of their pretty cottages — the 
refined essences of abstract existences — inhaling the pure air of 
the equal climate, reading novels or abstruse works of philosophy, 
according to their mental activity, from day to day, and waiting 
from year to year for their oranges to grow. Extremes meet. 
This is the sort of farming agreeable alike to literati and 
lazzaroni. 

After a long ride about Riverside and its environs, we re- 
turned to lunch at Colton, and in the afternoon rode over to 
.San Bernardino. 

There is something romantic about the settlement of this 
town — one of the earliest occupied by Americans in the State. 
When the Mormons were driven out of Illinois, their astute 
leader sent a colony to settle in California, preparatory to a 
general exodus of his people. Their reports of the richness of 
the soil led him wisely to infer that the country was altogether 
too good for his purpose, as the " Gentiles " would soon drive 
the " Saints " away again. He accordingly selected the alkaline 
deserts of Utah, little dreaming, prophet though he was, that 
the railroad would soon be on his track, and that the roses 
grpwn by his indomitable perseverance on that forbidden soil 
would be plucked by Gentile hands. Most of the California 



RIVAL TOWNS, ETC. ^y 

colony were recalled, and obedient to the mandate of their 
leader, the reluctant band marched across the Sierras to the 
land of promise — such promise as it gave when compared to 
the beauty and abundance they were forced to abandon ! The 
Israelites escaped from Egyptian bondage to establish them- 
selves in a land flowing with milk and honey. These colonists, 
after long persecutions, having found a refuge in this paradise 
of the earth, voluntarily subjected themselves to new toil and 
privation in the barren wastes of Deseret. They left the garden 
that nature had planted for them to conquer from nature a bare 
subsistence. Now that men speak all manner of evil concern- 
ing the Mormons, let this instance of self-devotion and religious 
faith, fanatical but sincere, be placed to their credit, as it will 
assuredly be by the Great Judge of all motives and actions. 

A few of the Latter-day Saints were permitted to remain in 
California. Two of them, Amasa Lyman and Charles C. Rich, 
came here before 1850, and acquired the title of San Bernardino, 
with eight square leagues of land and fifteen thousand head of 
cattle. Three hundred persons formed a settlement, and laid 
out the streets from north to south and from east to west, one 
hundred and thirty-two feet wide ; brought in irrigated canals, 
planted avenues of trees, divided the town into garden lots, and 
established every thing on the scale of villages now seen in Utah, 
but with far greater beaut}^, for climate and soil beneficently 
aided, instead of opposing, their efforts. The town is now thirty 
years old — a very ancient one for California — and by far the 
prettiest place we had yet seen. The trees have grown to a 
maturity that sixty years would not have given in the East. 
Each street is a boulevard ; and every house, if we except the 
few assigned to business purposes, is covered with creepers and 
nestled in full-grown orchards and vineyards. 



58 THE ROUND TRIP. 

We talked with two of the old Mormon settlers. They said 
that, with all the beauty around them, and all the comfort and 
luxury afforded by the teeming abundance of the soil, some of 
their number, sorrowing for their kindred and their religious 
associations, like those who wept by the rivers of Babylon, had 
gone over the mountains to Utah ; and now, in a population of 
four thousand, not more than one hundred and fifty of the saints 
were left. Their fellow townsmen speak of them as quiet, inof- 
fensive people, who have no disposition to make themselves 
obnoxious by practices distatesful to the sentiments of the com- 
munity. They belong to the " Josephite " branch of the church, 
in opposition to the Brighamites. 

The old Spaniards were accustomed to christen their discov- 
eries and settlements with the names of saints upon whose pro- 
tection they relied. When they reached this vale of verdant 
fields and rosy bovvers in the spring of the year 1769, they 
rightly judged that no saint was entitled to the honor of being 
its defender, and so, with a combination of piety and gallantry, 
when they had founded their town, they christened it and its 
valley *' Our Lady of the Angels." If in the wild luxuriance of 
nature, with these grand mountains in the background and the 
blue Pacific rippling on its shores, the picture seemed to them so 
beautiful, how much more worthy of its name would they have 
thought it, could they have seen its gardens adorned by cultiva- 
tion and its surrounding plains made pastures for herds and 
flocks ! Heretical as the present occupants may be, they have 
only modified its title for an economy of words. For them the 
valley and the town are still Los Angeles — " The Angels." 

We are all more familiar with the conquests of Peru and of 
Mexico than with the progress made by the invaders to the 
North, resulting in the subjugation of the natives of California, 



RIVAL TOWNS, ETC. 59 

because it was slow and gradual, lacking that dashing effrontery 
which Pizarro and Cortez displayed in conquering new worlds at 
a blow. By other means Spain gained her foothold on the more 
northern coast of America. For one hundred and fifty years 
after the conquest she vainly attempted to extend her dominions 
in this direction by military force, and then turned over the en- 
terprise to religious zeal, commissioning the Franciscan Fathers 
to obtain possession of the peninsula of Lower California. They 
accomplished this successfully, and seventy-nine years afterward 
pushed on to the region now known as Southern California, 
where the line is drawn between Mexico and the United States. 

In 1769, two small vessels, fitted out by the missionary 
friars, reached San Diego, and simultaneously there came by 
land a small detachment of men, driving before them two hun- 
dred head of cattle, and as many horses, sheep, and hogs, to 
stock the country they intended to occupy. 

These Catholic priests were practical missionaries. Their 
doctrine was, that religion meant civilization and its attendant 
benefits, as well as the mere adoption of certain articles of faith. 
Until they were superseded by military robbers, their influence 
over the Indians was, on the whole, for their temporal good, 
though they doubtless attached more importance to the salvation 
of their souls. They subdued them by a policy for the most 
part of kindness, while they conquered new territories for Spain 
without shedding blood. Their methods of conversion were 
not in all respects justifiable. Their appeals were not always 
founded on reason ; sometimes the argumentum ad hominem was 
literally a lasso thrown over the head of the victim, by which he 
was captured and brought into the mission grounds to be 
baptized. 

The Church has always been accused of reducing men to 



6o THE ROUXD TRIP. 

slavery of the mind. Here the tyranny was chiefly exercised 
over the body, for the Indians had not much mental nature to 
overcome. The dazzling ceremonial of worship, the lighted 
tapers and fragrant incense, were enough to subdue what little 
intellect they possessed ; their bone and muscle were made 
serviceable in building monasteries, cultivating vineyards and 
herding cattle. A quasi religion and a quasi ci\-ilization thus 
gained foothold together in California. They were the shadows 
of coming events now realized and enjoyed by us. 

Trees of bigotr}- were planted on the Atlantic and on the 
Pacific shores. They were of different stocks, but they have 
both been grafted with scions that have borne a better fruit. As 
New England celebrates her anniversar}- of December 22d in 
memor)' of 1620, so California should make a gala day of the 
ist of May in gratitude to her pilgrim fathers of 1769. They 
established their first mission where they landed in San Diego, 
there beginning their efforts for the conversion of their heathen 
neighbors to a ci\nlization which, with these, as with all other 
savages, must result in extermination, not attributable to relig- 
ions. Catholic, or Protestant, but to the advent and colonization 
of a superior race. 

From San Diego they advanced to the north and to the interi- 
or, driving their increasing herds before them, corralling Indians, 
building monasteries and possessing themselves of the land. Of 
the twent}--one mission churches founded by them, most remain 
in some state of preservation — that at Santa Barbara being nearly 
perfect. Some of them are occupied by a few Franciscan brothers, 
who flit about the spacious cloisters like ghostly images of their 
predecessors, the great territories surrounding them having long 
since been secularized. 

The fathers enjoyed their highest prosperit)- in the early part 



RIVAL TOIVXS, ETC. 6i 

of this centmy. It is said diat the Mission of San Miguel in 
182 1 owned nearly one hundred thousand head of cattle, fifty 
thousand ^eep, and thousands of horses and mules, and the pros- 
j)erity of this mission corresponded with the rest. So much 
for their stock ; as for the land, they owned it alL Mexican in- 
dependence, declared the year afterward, was a severe blow to 
this ecclesiastical hierarchy. Military adventurers despoiled them 
of their wealth, gradually redodng their property and influence, 
until in 1S43 „.; _ -aient took possession of their vast 
estates^ and f. t z sold them to the highest bidders. 

Hence came - z _ its.*' which, being allowed when 

the couritry ^ _- ;- ;i ; . td States, have been sold to 

enterprising V : colossal monopolies. 

A few ir..T- 1 .. r famous mission <rf 

Si-- Gi'rr:T' T . : . ^ , _ i 5:x years old, one 

;: :. - :;..—: ; _..: _:;;. ; ;_- J:^:iriscans at San 

Die^ - lellent preservation, though time-stained and 

-_T T .T rission no longer serves f<M" the con- 

7 ^ 'isappeared entirely, or left the 

_:-_; a slow current through the 

veins ci Mexic^Ji ■ _ A :e^ ■:;' ±r5t ! _ : 1 :r5 sail 

ren: - ■ : ': t: :r ^t :-7i: 1 : : : : " 

the _ _ : :. . 7 -.-.s -:.-- ^.v_, 

dc- : : .;_ :. .- ;.-::iard (^ the Cro^i. 1 - 

wil! , -i their larders with provisions and their 

Xow they look about them and beh : 

- t heretic gadiering the fruits erf their ._ 

- : ; Los Angeles are indebted to those old fathers, 
not only for their land, but for its most valuable prodactijzs. 
T' T rought with them from Mexico the orange and thr 
^-i ^-^sion grounds now contain trees one hundred ve^:; 



52 THE ROUND TRIP. 

and the mission grape, from wliich most of the wine of this 
district is made, has been the most profitable product of the 
soil. From the bottle of its pure juice before us, we drink to 
the memory of the Friars of the Order of San Francisco. 



LOS ANGELOS, ETC. 63 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Los Angeles — Disappearance of the Greasers — A Ken- 
tuckian's discovery of contentment — The founder op 
the California wine industry — Statistics of orange 
culture. 

The city of Los Angeles is in a condition of renaissance. It 
is throwing off its old caterpillar Spanish nature, and coming 
out to soar on the gay wings of its new existence. It is al- 
ready so changed that there are few traces of the Mexican 
element which formed its total population thirty years ago. 
In a score and a half of years it has grown from a slow 
pueblo of adobes, to a thriving city of business streets and costly 
dwellings. The old inhabitants who remain are driven into a 
cluster of little hovels and vendas with Spanish signs, v/here 
patois Castilian may be heard, brown senoras seen, and the 
aroma of garlic scented. The disappearance of the "greasers " 
is a more curious study than that of the Indians. They were, 
and they are not ; nobody has murdered them ; they have died 
of no epidemic ; they have not emigrated, and there has been 
no impediment to their birth. What has become of them no 
one knows, they have only faded out of sight. 

Los Angeles is now an American city of eighteen thousand 



64 THE ROUND TRIP. 

inhabitants, prosperous and gaining in population and wealth, 
having already reached the fourth rank in the State. It is not 
strictly a sea-port, although it is connected with the ocean by 
two railroads, one extending twenty miles to Wilmington, and 
the other reaching Santa Monica by a shorter route. These 
make it the favorite headquarters for invalids, who generally find 
the air of the city agreeable : but if they desire a change they 
obtain it in an hour at the sea-shore. The temperature is re- 
markably even for the whole year, mostly averaging between 
sixty and seventy degrees Fahrenheit, seldom exceeding the lat- 
ter. Many persons of delicate constitution, incapacitated for 
work in the Eastern States, coming here merely for their health, 
regain it to such a degree that they are able to engage in busi- 
ness or farming. Of such persons and their families, no incon- 
siderable part of this population is composed. After remaining 
a short time on compulsion, they fix their abodes for the remain- 
der of their lives from choice. When you ask them if they 
never intend to return to their old homes, they invariably reply : 
" Yes, I should like to go back — for a visit." 

Mr. Bliss, a Kentuckian, told us that he came out prospecting, 
not for silver or gold, but for a home. He tried all sorts of 
homes for a while, living in cities and on ranches, and was finally 
tempted to purchase his present dwelling, about a mile from the 
centre of the cit}'. This was a forty-acre lot, having on it an 
adobe house which he made exceedingly pretty by adding 
another story. His grounds were already planted with twenty- 
two acres of vines, and one hundred and seventy-five orange 
trees in full bearing, besides young orchards and vineyards rap- 
idly maturing ; and all the rest not occupied as a beautiful flower 
garden, was laid down to alfalfa, I would not thus notice the 
estate of a private gentleman who so kindly entertained us, with- 



LOS ANGELES, ETC. 65 

out his permission ; and I mention this instance mainly to illus- 
trate the comforts of life that may be acquired by those of 
moderate means whose health or inclination leads them to 
search for the desirable habitations easily attainable here. Mr. 
Bliss purchased the place for $18,000, and has expended on his 
house, stable and other outfits $7,000 more, so that it cost him 
altogether, about $25,000. 

Now let us see what this farm or garden — as one may choose 
to call it — will yield in an ordinarily productive year, leaving out 
of account the incipient orchards, whose profit is in the future, 
and supposing the space they occupy to be planted with alfalfa : 

32 acres of grapes, as sold on the vines $2,200 

3 acres, containing 175 orange trees, the oranges selling for $20 a tree. 3,500 
2 acres occupied by house, stable and flower garden 

13 acres of alfalfa 1,300 



Total $7,000 

The labor emplo3'ed is little, as the oranges and grapes are 
sold on the trees and vines. All the weeding, pruning and 
mowing can be done by two Chinamen at an expense of seven 
hundred dollars a year. It must be remembered that this value 
of the crop will be greatly enhanced when the young orange 
groves and vineyards come to maturity. It may be said that 
every one has not the capital wherewith to purchase an already 
productive estate. Very true ; but youth is capital, and young 
men can afford to await its development. Land as good as this 
can be bought for fifty dollars an acre or less, and in ten j'ears 
will be as productive. In the mean time, patient economy in 
raising wheat and vegetables and the product of the wonderful 
alfalfa will support life, and the sure hope of the future will give 
it a zest. 

It may be that the business of orange culture will be over- 

5 



66 THE ROUND TRIP. 

done — this is a matter to be considered ; but the grape can 
never be overproduced. It never has been since the time that 
Noah came forth from the ark to give it his earliest attention. 
One of the greatest advantages our country will derive from 
California is the increasing manufacture of pure wine, which 
introduced among the people will overcome their taste for 
poisonous whiskey, and make them as temperate as the peasantr}' 
of Southern France and Italy. Most of the California wine has 
heretofore been made from the Mission grape, introduced at 
their advent by the Franciscan Friars. Latterly the white Mus- 
cat has received more favor. 

The name of the man who first showed the capabilities of 
California as a wine-producing State, and whose children have 
seen his efforts crowned with success, was Haraszthy, a Hun- 
garian refugee, who came here not many years ago. I remem- 
ber hearing him in New York speak enthusiastically of his plans 
for California, and I remember how, in common with others, I 
regarded his schemes as wild and visionary. But he persevered 
until he gained the confidence of the Legislature of California, 
who sent him back to Europe to procure the choicest vines of all 
its wine-producing countries. How he succeeded on his mission 
the hillsides and valleys of the State from Sacramento to San 
Diego attest. Millions of vines ever}- year entwine their wreaths 
to crown his memory, and to keep it green and fruitful like 
themselves. 

We drove through the " Mission fruit belt " eight miles from 
the city. After reaching it the road for miles was a perpetual 
boulevard of orange trees — sometimes a forest of them — or of 
lemons, limes, walnuts, almonds and olives. Where they were 
not, the fields for hundreds of acres on each side were covered 
with clustering vines just forming their blossoms into grapes 



7.CS ANGELES, ETC 67 

The most extensive orchards and vineyards were those of 
Messrs. Rose, Titus, Kewen and Baldwin, whose acres are to 
be counted by thousands. Beside these, the small proprietors 
possess their hundreds and the cottagers their tens. All the 
trees and vines are not yet fully grown, but an idea may be 
formed of their present productiveness when it is remembered 
that last year Southern California sent to market two million 
seven hundred thousand oranges, three hundred and fifty thou- 
sand lemons, and one hundred and twenty-eight thousand limes, 
most of them coming from Los Angelos and its immediate 
neighborhood. Of the grapes I have no statistics, as most of 
them are pressed into wine on the spot The culture of oranges 
is attracting the greatest attention. 

The Southern Califomian has " orange on the brain." He 
dreams of oranges at night, and they are his realities by day. 
Will the thing be overdone ? Let us see. There is one nursery 
containing five hundred thousand slips destined to be trees ; 
there are many more perhaps not so large. A tree reaches per- 
fection in fifteen years- In fifteen years, if one hundred thou- 
sand acres are planted — and that is an exceedingly moderate 
estimate — with sixty-four trees to the acre, there will be six 
million four hundred thousand trees. Each tree averaging one 
thousand oranges, there will be six thousand four hundred 
million oranges. We will suppose that in fifteen years from 
this time the population of the United States shall reach sixty 
millions, and that these people are all able to buy oranges and 
cannot get them from any source but California. There will be 
one hundred and six oranges and two-thirds of an orange for 
each man, woman and child in the country. 



6$ THE ROUND TRIP. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Natural Divisions of California — Anaheim — A Thrifty 
German Settlement. 

California is cosmopolitan in its inhabitants and universal 
in its productions. As its people come from every part of the 
world there is too great a variety for sharp divisions in religion, 
or social life. Their quarrels would be many-sided, so they 
have wisely concluded not to occupy their time in fighting, but 
to settle down into an oUa podrida of good-fellowship. The 
plants and cereals get on in the same amicable manner — the 
orange trees forming avenues through the wheat-fields, and the 
vine growing lovingly by the side of shocks of Indian corn. 
Climate, however, has drawn a line through the State. It does 
not disturb the friendly relations of mankind and of nature, but 
it gives a greater preponderance of different classes to different 
latitudes. Thus Northern California is for the most part settled 
by northern men, robust and enterprising farmers and miners. 
They have taken possession of the lands best suited to their 
character — lands where corn and wheat best thrive, and rocky 
hills where gold abounds. On the contrary, Southern California 
is more often the home of the less active southerners, who hail 
from the lower Middle and Gulf States, or from France and Italy. 



NATURAL DIVISIONS OF CALIFORNIA, ETC. 69 

They become ranchmen or fruit-growers, their indolent habits 
leading them to prefer the care of herds and the culture of the 
grape and semi-tropical fruits to the harder toil of the husband- 
man and the gold-hunter. Here the atmosphere and soil kindly 
respond to their more modest requirements, and yield a sufficient 
reward for lighter labor. 

It is true that northern and southern men, as well as wheat 
and vines, gold and orange trees, are to be found everywhere, 
but latitude draws a general line between them, notwithstanding 
their universal harmony. It seemed to us that there was not 
the same haste to be rich among the people of Los Angeles that 
we found in San Francisco. We saw no excited crowds turning 
the street corners into stock exchanges ; there was little talk 
of Consolidated Virginia, California and Sierra Nevada ; but 
people were mildly excited about cattle and sheep, vines and 
orange trees. There must be something fascinating in having 
beautiful things grow up around one's home, promising such 
splendid results for so small an outlay. There is Mr. Wolfskill, 
in the outskirts of the town, whose father planted an orchard 
and vineyard now producing annually thirty thousand dollars for 
his son, who has merely to look on from year to year as the 
golden treasures fall into his lap, and the wine flows out in a 
rich stream. 

Not far from the city we found the " Indiana Colony," so 
named, perhaps, from the fact that the State of Indiana is the 
one least represented. Here are several thousand acres laid 
out as orange plantations, and two or three dozen cottages 
awaiting the shade trees growing up to beautify them. Some of 
the residents expressed their doubts of rapidly acquiring a 
fortune, but all agreed that the neighborhood was well adapted 
to persons suffering from bronchial or pulmonary ailments. 



yo THE ROUND TRIP. 

The land in these valleys is watered chiefly by the Los Angeles 
and Santa Ana rivers, two queer little streams that play " hide 
and seek " from their sources until they are lost in the Pacific- 
It is supposed that they are continuations of the Humboldt and 
other waters, which disappear far beyond the Sierras, and after 
undermining them, gush forth in salient fountains on the western 
slojje. Thence they course down the plains, sometimes on the 
surface, then sinking again but easily followed in their tracks, 
and with a little digging brought to light The Santa Ana 
serves the purpose of abundant irrigation at Riverside, as we 
have already seen, and then comes forth to be likewise employed 
at Anaheim. This is an exceedingly pretty town of two thou- 
sand five hundred inhabitants, and has a historj' as romantic as 
fiction. 

Twent\'-one years ago some Germans who had drifted to Saa 
Francisco in search of gold became dissatisfied with their 
adventure, and, longing for the vineyards of the Rhine, would 
gladly have returned to their old homes. WTiile they were con- 
sidering this step it occurred to some of them that, as they could 
not conveniently get back to Germany, they might in a manner 
bring Germany to California. They had heard of the adaptation 
of land in the South to the culture of the grape, and of its suc- 
cess in the hands of the old Franciscan monks. Accordingly, 
with a spirit of enterprise which was creditable to their new 
idea, and with a concentration of capital and labor attesting 
their mutual confidence, they dispatched an agent to Los Angeles 
to survey and purchase for them a tract of land. This agent, 
Mr. Hansen, was a practical engineer, who is still li\"ing to 
enjoy the satisfaction of witnessing the happiness to which 
he so largely contributed. Armed with full authority- and a 
fund subscribed by fift}* of his countrjmen, he came to the 



NATURAL DI VISIONS OF CALIFORNIA, ETC -i 

desert plain now occupied by Anaheim, took up the apparently 
valueless land at small cost, dug a canal seven miles long from 
the Santa Ana, and divided the area of eleven hundred and 
si2cty-six acres into fifty private lots of twenty acres each, reserv- 
ing the rest for schools and other public buildings. Before any 
distribution was made he turned irrigating canals on everj" lot, 
set out rows of wiUows or Cottonwood trees around them, and 
planted eight acres of each with vines. When three years had 
elapsed, and not before, the purchasers were called to take 
possession. 

The distribution was made by lot, according to value — some 
paying more and some less, all in just proportion- At the end 
of three years every stockholder had paid on an average twelve 
hundred dollars, including assessments, and when the property 
was divided there was a surplus to each of one hundred and 
twenty dollars, and they had their land nearly half planted with 
thrifty vines and all irrigated and fenced. There was nothing 
for them to do but to go to work, and this they did energetically, 
in brotherly co-operadon. Many of them are still on the spot, 
having raised their families around them, built school-houses and 
churches, a theatre, dance house and Wcingartcn, and now they 
are the happiest people in one of the loveliest towns we ever 
beheld. 

The history of Anaheim is not unlike that of San Bernardino, 
both having been started by a bond of fellowship productive of 
good results. Each of these villages, so tastefully laid out by 
their founders, so well cultivated and improved, blooms like a 
little Eden of happiness and repose. As we walked through the 
shaded streets of Anaheim, passing the cottages adorned by 
trailing vines and flowers, and in the evening caught the chorus 
of German songs, we seemed to be carried back to the Father- 



72 THE ROUND TRIP. 

land, where we had often witnessed similar scenes. But how 
greatly was the Fatherland improved upon by the absence o£ 
poverty and the presence of comforts in this new home on the 
banks of the Ana, so happily named the Ana Heim ! 

Such agreeable surroundings could not fail to attract others 
to the town and its environs, where nearly three thousand peo- 
ple are now domesticated. The German purchase formed only 
a small part of the extensive " Steam's Ranches," originally 
comprising one hundred and forty thousand acres, of which 
sixty-five thousand have been already sold and tenanted. 

While at Los Angeles I received the following note from the 
agent who has this extensive property in charge : 

"Dear Sir: As I understand that you are travelling through Southern 
California, and, of course, desire to see the best, as you have already seen 
much of the worst part of it, I invite you to visit Anaheim ; and if you will 
give me time I will take great pleasure in showing you the surrounding coun- 
try, which, in this dry season, presents a marked contrast to what you have 
seen during your journey, excepting where the land was irrigated. We have 
greater advantages for irrigation than any other part of California, and we 
have, in addition, thousands of acres of land always moist and covered with 
perpetual verdure, pastures that require no irrigation and never fail. I wish 
to show you that, instead of the dry, hot country that we are supposed to 
have, you will find a fertile soil with an abundance of water, a mild, genial, 
temperate climate never either hot or cold, and a remarkable growth of vege- 
tation, such as is seen nowhere else. Yours truly, 

" Wm. R. Olden." 

It affords us great pleasure to bear witness that Mr. Olden 
has not by any means exaggerated the advantages of this region ; 
moreover, he gave us the opportunity of much enjoyment and an 
experience of the most agreeable hospitality. 

Anaheim lies twenty-seven miles in a south-easterly direc- 
tion from Los Angeles, and is only thirteen miles from the sea- 
coast. Its climate is somewhat cooler than that of its neigh- 
bor in the summer, as the sea breeze always prevails in the af- 



NATURAL DIVISIONS OF CALIFORNTA, ETC. 73 

ternoon. Satisfactory as this condition is to most persons, those 
having weak lungs should give the preference to the interior, un- 
less they are willing to risk an occasional cold as an offset to a 
constant tonic. The best advice to invalids is not to settle down 
anywhere. They are often inclined to do so, and they should 
always have a policeman after them ordering them to " move 
on." 



74 



THE ROUND TRIP. 



CHAPTER X. 

Sanguine " Sanjaigans " — Efkects of the Drought — Santa 
Monica — A Steamship with a History — San Buenaven- 
tura — The Ojai Valley — Missionary Enterprise. 

Had time permitted, we might advantageously have extended 
our tour beyond Anaheim one hundred and ten miles to San 
Diego, the last city of Southern California on the Pacific coast ; 
No journal is absolutely complete that does not comprise a ref- 
erence to this point, not only connected with the earliest history 
of the State, but one that purposes to be a rival of San Francisco 
so soon as railroad communication from the East is perfected. 

"That time is fast coming," said a visionary " Sanjaigan." 
" We have the finest harbor on the coast." (By the bye I have 
heard that remark at every open roadstead between San Pedro 
and San Francisco.) " We shall draw all the travel from the 
East on a road not blocked with snow, and we shall of course 
have all the trade with China by way of the Sandwich Islands. 
In ten years, sir, San Francisco will be nowhere." All the San 
Diego people whom we met looked upon Tom Scott and Jay 
Gould as their good angels. Scott would be sure to bring them 
a road from Texas, and Gould would continue the " Utah South- 
ern " through the Gorgonio Pass to their town, thus connecting 



SANGUINE " SANJAIGANS," ETC. 75 

New York, the present greatest city on the Atlantic, with San 
Diego, the future greatest city on the Pacific. 

Before turning our faces to the North it may not be amiss to 
refer once more to the chief agricultural resources of Southern 
California, compressing the trustworthy information obtained 
into the smallest possible space. I have already described the 
vineyards and orange groves, but those are by no means all 
that the farmer depends upon. Indeed they are yet in their 
incipient stages. 

The old Mexicans relied for subsistence almost entirely upon 
their flocks and herds, and these are still the most productive 
sources of revenue to the rancheros. The unusually dry season 
had made sad havoc among the cattle and sheep. The same 
cause operated disastrously on the corn, barley and wheat of the 
uplands. Of these nine-tenths were lost. The oranges, limes, 
figs, lemons, olives, almonds, walnuts and grapes, being mostly 
cultivated on irrigated land were in their usual abundance, and 
the cereals grown on similar ground were more profitable because 
of the general famine. The conclusion is that no man who is 
not willing to take his chances in a lottery should invest in cat- 
tle or sheep, or in land that cannot be irrigated as occasion 
requires. 

Sixteen miles from Los Angelos is the charming watering- 
place of Santa Monica. As the village forms part of a large 
ranche, the proprietors, of whom Senator Jones of Nevada is 
chief, have laid it out with a view to make it attractive, and thus 
to benefit the rest of their property. Is has been called the 
"Long Branch of California," and is far superior to its name- 
sake in every natural resource. The town, consisting at present 
of a large comfortable hotel and its adjacent saloons, billiard 
rooms and stables, beside a few private cottages, stands on a 



76 THE ROUND TRIP. 

high bluff in the bight of a bay Uned from point to point by a 
hard, wide sand beach. The breakers seldom dash and roar as 
they do on the Long Branch of the Atlantic, but the milder Pa- 
cific sends them in to curl in long festoons of green water, and 
to beat their time of softer music on the shore. Along the bluff 
for two miles there extends a straight race course, for running 
horses, on which not unfrequently may be witnessed such skilful 
horsemanship in chasing and lassoing as would astonish our 
eastern park equestrians. The temperature of Santa Monica is 
very equable, and the daily sea breeze renders it a most agreea- 
ble spot. The company's steamers touch here three times a 
week in their trips from San Francisco to San Diego, and on 
their return. 

We left Santa Monica at 6 o'clock of the afternoon on the 
old steamer Senator, a ship that had been recently rebuilt and 
put in excellent condition. This little craft of one thousand 
tons has a history. She has probably earned more money than 
any vessel ever known. It was a daring but successful adven- 
ture to send her from New York through the Straits of Magellan 
in 1848. When she reached San Francisco thousands of 
men were there, and hundreds daily arriving, who had no means 
of ascending the Sacramento River on their way to the placer 
mines. The Senator, the first steamer that had ever floated on 
those waters, was immediately placed upon the route. Her 
owners were able to fix the rates of passage and freight at 
any sum they pleased. Day after day and month after month 
for the first year this bonanza boat gathered in not unfrequently 
fifty thousand dollars for the trip of a few hours' time. This 
monopoly could not last forever ; one rival after another ap- 
peared on the Sacramento to claim a share of the spoils, and 
finally the railroad settled their pretensions by taking the trade 



SANGUINE ''SANJAIGANSr ETC. 77 

for itself. The race-horse who in his youth has won the stakes, 
in his age draws the wagon ; so the Senator took her place in 
the Coast Line, with newer but not better ships than her 
staunch old self. The ancient " forty-niners " patronize her for 
association's sake. " Yes, sir," said one of them whom we met 
in her cabin, " this blessed old barkey carried me on my first 
trip to the mines. She has earned money enough in gold to 
sink her to her guards, God bless her ! " A Californian never 
loses his respect for any person or any thing that has " made 
money." 

After a run of six hours, we left the steamer at Buenaventura, 
preferring, for the sake of seeing the country, to take the stage 
for the remainder of the route. San Buenaventura richly de- 
serves its whole name. Its former owners found time to pro- 
nounce it in full, but the present proprietors, whose time is 
money, have dropped the San altogether, and in common speech 
cutoff half the remainder; with them it is Ventura. By and 
by it will be Tura, and that will do better for men in too great 
a hurry to adopt the present pronunciation. 

Call it what they please, it is a lovely little town. Before it 
rolls the broad ocean ; behind it is the Coast Range, through 
which runs the lovely Valley of the Ojai, on whose slopes are 
the old Spanish ranches, now divided into smaller farms, where 
grain and fruit are raised in the greatest abundance. For the 
tourist and the seeker of health, the Ojai has great attractions. 
It i.') far enough from the sea to escape its rough winds, and 
near enough for its air to be tempered by them as they pass 
over the intervening country. For the agriculturist no better soil 
can be found. The recent discoveries of petroleum in this 
neighborhood have given a new importance to Buenaventura, 
and brought it into notice as a commercial port. 



y8 THE ROUND TRIP. 

Those glorious old pioneer fanatics, the Franciscan monks, 
who had already settled San Diego and Los Angeles, sailed 
along the coast, and landed here in 1782, founding the mission 
now standing in good preservation. They at once began their 
double work of converting the natives and cultivating the soil, 
and soon acquired a controlling influence over the Indians. 
Twenty years afterward the convent records classify the abo- 
rigines — some as "gentiles, wild Indians," who refuse to be 
domesticated; others, "converted Indians, good Indians, In- 
dians fit to die." Of such who were living in the village about 
the mission, there were then nine hundred and thirty-eight. 

The success attending farming was equal to that of conver- 
sion. In 1825, the mission owned more than seventy thousand 
head of cattle, horses, and sheep, beside orchards, vineyards* 
and church property, and one hundred and fifty thousand dol" 
lars in cash. Now, that is making missionary enterprise a 
profitable undertaking in the hands of good managers. Herein 
those old Catholic padres have certainly shown more financial 
wisdom than any of the Protestant societies have evinced in 
their operations which call for constant outlay. Doubtless the 
secret of their conversions might be found in the greater adapt- 
ability of their forms and ceremonies to the character of the 
Indians ; but their worldly wisdom was acquired by a more 
thorough education and a closer study of nature at large, as well 
as of human nature, than is now required for the outfit of a 
missionary to the heathen. 



A STAGE RIDE UP THE CALIFORNIA COAST, ETC. 79 



CHAPTER XI. 

A Stage Ride up the California Coast — The Coacher's 
Yarns — How a Clergyman was Re-Baptized — The 
City with the Perfect Climate — A Small Landowner 
AND his Trifling Possessions. 

Our thanks to you, Messrs. Flint, Bixby & Co ! We regard 
you as the representatives of a method of locomotion fast be- 
coming obsolete, but kept alive by you for the benefit of those 
who travel to see all that can be seen. Here the old stage- 
coach still lives. No iron horse snorts defiance to its prancing 
leaders, or runs through cuts and holes in the mountains to shut 
the light of day and the wild magnificence of nature from our 
sight. Long may it be before his track is laid over these vast 
solitudes of sierras .and plains ! It is not a wish agreeable to 
speculators in town lots and real estate. We speak only for 
ourselves and for those who may follow in our wake. 

At Newhall, a point on the Southern Pacific Railroad where 
it crosses the Mojave Desert, this stage line begins and runs in 
a north-west direction fifty miles to Buenaventura. Thence it 
continues along the sea-shore thirty miles to Santa Barbara, and 
thence two hundred and twenty-two miles further to Soledad. 
We took the coach at Buenaventura. Nearly the whole distance 



8o THE ROUND TRIP. 

to Santa Barbara was accomplished on the beach, the tide being 
fortunately at low ebb. The politeness of our fellow-passengers 
gave us seats upon the box with the driver, whose ceaseless 
yarns of border life divided our attention with the ceaseless roar 
of the breakers. He related, with great satisfaction, an exploit 
of himself and six comrades in coralling eighty-five Indians who 
had committed some depredations on a settlement. The red- 
skins were surprised on a small island, and, as they attempted 
to leave, were shot from the shore of the lake, falling one by 
one until none were left alive. This happened twenty years ago, 
about the time of the Mountain Meadow Massacre. We have 
all heard of that, but " who had heard this story before ? " I 
asked him. " Like enough, nobody out East," he replied. " Per- 
haps they never heard of our killing about as many rattlesnakes 
one morning, either ? " 

It was a lovely day as we drove over the smooth surface of 
the beach, fanned by the light breeze, and inhaling the pure air 
of the sea. " Sometimes it isn't this way, though," said the 
driver ; " I was coming along here once at high water, when it 
was blowing fresh. At such times I generally wait for the tide 
to go down, but there was a parson inside, and he was in a big 
hurry. He wanted me to drive on. Now that suited me, for I 
hate parsons ; so I let the cattle go, and, just as I expected, a 
big sea come in and went clean through the coach, landing a 
pile of kelp on top. You should have seen that minister when 
we got by the point ! I don't know what denomination he 
started in on, but he wasn't a Free-Will Baptist when he got 
out." 

Long before we reached Santa Barbara, the town looked 
down upon us from the north cape of the bay, where it is spread 
out on the southern slope of the hills, completely sheltered from 



A STAGE RIDE UP THE CALIFORNIA COAST, ETC. 8i 

the cold winds of the coast. Probably more letters are written 
to the Eastern press from Santa Barbara than from all the cities 
and towns of California combined. It has come to be regarded 
as the chief health resort of the State, and I am not sure that 
it does not merit some of the praise that has been passed 
upon it. As to its climate, its advocates go too far in claiming 
for it perfection. We have never yet found a perfect climate 
suited to all conditions of health and disease, and I do not be- 
lieve that such an atmosphere exists below the level of Heaven, 
In many respects San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Anaheim 
are superior to Santa Barbara, Santa Monica and Buenaven- 
tura. The former are at a distance, greater or smaller, from 
the sea coast ; all far enough not to be affected by its rough 
winds. As to the latter, for those who can stand the sea air, 
there is probably little choice to be made, if climate alone is 
considered. But Santa Barbara being voted the home of con- 
sumptives, every thing has been done to make it home-like 
and attractive. The hotels are all comfortable, and some of 
them luxurious. Their prices, as well as those of the many 
boarding-houses, are graded to meet requirements of wealth, 
competence and slender means. Three poor men can live on 
the money one rich man pays, hotel prices running from one to 
three dollars a day, and board by the month being still more 
reasonable. There are churches of almost every denomination, 
common schools, and a high school called a college. Many 
people of leisure and culture being domesticated here, there is 
no want of society and its attendants of parties, clubs, lec- 
tures, and libraries. The winter is the best season for health, 
and for all these adjuncts to its maintenance. 

At the time of our stay, the few days were termed " excep- 
tional." We meet a great many of these " exceptionals " every- 

6 



82 THE ROUND TRIP. 

where. Every morning a chilling fog arose from the sea and 
shrouded the town in a veil of mist till nearly mid-day. They 
said it never did so before, and never would do so again. The 
weather is a pet of these Santa Barbarians, but like other house- 
hold pets, children and dogs, it does not always "show off well " 
before strangers. There are many pretty drives and rides in the 
neighborhood, and good carriages and saddle horses may be ob- 
tained on moderate terms. 

Colonel W. W. Hollister, who is well known on this coast as 
a political economist as well as a wealthy ranchero, invited us- to 
pass a day at his farm of three thousand six hundred acres, a 
favorite part of his estate of nearly one hundred thousand. Be- 
side these, I may add, he owns one hundred and fifty-seven 
thousand more in partnership with Mr. Dibblee. In 1S70 these 
gentlemen sold twenty thousand acres for three hundred and 
seventy thousand dollars, part of a Mexican grant purchased by 
them for almost nothing. In 1874 the crops of this twenty 
thousand acres sold for one million five hundred thousand dol- 
lars. As we picnicked in a dell shaded by a forest of live oaks 
arching their branches over our heads and forming an immense 
arbor, the colonel sat on a stump and related the story of his 
early life. 

" I started with eight thousand sheep from Ohio," he said, 
" in 1S53. By loss and robbery in various ways they were re- 
duced to eight hundred when I arrived here. We were four- 
teen months on the way. When I struck the place where my 
house stands yonder, I sat down to rest while the sheep were 
grazing, and looking around at the beautiful prospect I resolved 
to settle here. I took up a section, and as my sheep increased 
and I got money, I bought out Mexican grants. Well, I don't 
know," he continued reflectively twirling his walking-stick, 



A STAGE RIDE UP THE CALIFORNIA COAST, ETC. ^l 

'' somehow I grew rich ; I couldn't help it. The sheep and the 
cattle would have young ones ; I couldn't help that, could I ? The 
Greasers wanted to sell out cheap ; I couldn't help buying, could 
I? Whose fault is it? They say I'm a land-grabber. Well, 
wouldn't they grab if they could ? I bought the land at market 
prices, and I'll sell it at market prices now, in lots, small or large. 
Well, well," he added, after another thoughtful twirl, as his eye 
brightened with satisfaction, "my cattle and my sheep are dying 
off for want of grass this year ; nobody offers to pay me for my 
loss, but I'm glad it will make some people happy." 

We bade the hospitable philosopher good-by, expressing 
our sympathy for him in his misfortunes ; and, after riding 
through the grounds of Mr. Cooper and Mr, Stowe, planted 
alike with vines and fruit trees, returned to our hotel from a 
charming excursion of thirty-five miles. 



84 THE ROUND TRIP. 



CHAPTER XII. 

The UPS and downs of Travel — The Death of the Herds 
— A Sand Storm — San Luis Obispo — The Springs of Paso 
DE RoBLES — Baths of Water and of Earth — German 
Explanation of the Mud Baths — Hotel Life in a 
Cottage. 

Securing outside seats on the coach, we left Santa Barbara 
at four o'clock in the morning. If day was breaking we knew 
it not, for it must have been breaking far above the dense fog 
that enveloped us in a wet blanket and dampened the enthusiasm 
with which we had looked forward to a journey across the moun- 
tains. Driving ten miles over a level grade, we began to ascend 
by a winding road until the highest elevation was reached. By 
actual measurement we discovered that the fog was eighteen 
hundred feet thick, and that was all the discovery to compensate 
for our disappointment in losing the view of the plains, and 
islands dotting the sea. 

The driver jocosely remarked that it was a " pleasant morn- 
ing — pleasant, I mean, by contrast ; for coming down this moun- 
tain in a fog or on a dark night, on the full run round these 
short turns to make time, when I can't see my whip handle, 
why it ain't pleasant." 



THE UPS AND DOWNS OF TRAVEL, ETC. 85 

Occasionally, as we caught a glimpse of precipices overhang- 
ing unknown abysses when our wheels were a foot or two from 
the edge of a narrow path, we realized the comparative danger, 
and were willing to admit that by contrast the daylight was 
cheerful and bright. 

" Here, ma'am," said the driver to my wife, with a view of 
allaying her apprehensions, " here's the place where my two 
leaders slipped off last winter and went down. The passengers 
jumped out lively and cut the traces and saved the wheelers and 
the coach, but the leaders were killed. Now I never knew the 
same thing to happen twice on the same spot." Coming to an- 
other sharp turn, he advised her to "hold on tight, but you needn't 
be so particular as if you was coming down ; here's where poor 
Tom Buddington fell off the box and rolled down two hundred 
feet. The agent blamed me for being behind time that morning, 
but we had to stop to pick up his body and fetch him in." 

Surmounting the ridge at last, we had a little experience of a 
down-hill rush around corners for three miles, until we arrived at 
the breakfast station. This shanty was in charge of an Irish 
lady, who obligingly " shooed" the pigs out of the banquet hall 
during our meal, which consisted of fried bacon to look at, 
and some excellent roasted potatoes to eat. By time that we 
were ready to start on our second stage the fog gathered 
itself in great folds, mounted aloft in clouds to be dispersed 
by the sun, and the bright day reigned supreme. The down 
grade, though not so long as the ascent, was in many places 
quite as steep, and, like it, circled round projecting crags, 
and was cut through notches in the side-hills. Then we de- 
scended, perhaps a thousand feet, until we reached the plateau 
of a park nearly one hundred miles in length, and ten miles in 
breadth. 



86 THE ROUND TRIP. 

You may have seen the parks planted with white-oaks on 
5ome of the large English estates, adorned as they are by every 
device of artistic taste ; but you would confess, on driving over 
this park of nature, that they resembled it only in miniature, as 
a hundred acres bear comparison with a hundred miles, and as 
a hundred of their noble trees counted against thousands upon 
thousands of these nobler live oaks. No forester could have set 
them out at more proper distance with a view to effect ; no skill 
in pruning could have made them more graceful, and no cultiva- 
tion could give to the English oaks the everlasting verdure of 
this pride of California. 

We were left to imagine what the landscape would be in or- 
dinary seasons, when beneath their overhanging branches is 
spread a carpet as green as their leaves ; and when, instead 
of the few lean straggling cattle and sheep, tens of thousands 
of herds and flocks may be seen grazing upon the rich abundance. 
Now, all was parched and barren, scarcely a spear of grass was 
to be seen, and numbers of the poor beasts had literally starved 
to death. 

I do not know what these inoflEensive creatures have done 
to suffer thus. Can anybody explain this myster}- of Provi- 
dence ? Man is punished — we understand that in a degree ; 
theologians attribute it to sin, either of our own or of Adam. 
But what had these beasts or their progenitors to do with that ? 
Lord Dundreary has been laughed at as a fool ; but when he 
says of another matter as he would say of this — " It is one of 
those things that no fellow can find out " — he shows himself 
as wise as any of us who attempt to reason upon it. 

Before the pasturage failed altogether, many of the herds and 
flocks were driven away ; but now they could find nothing to 
eat while on their journey. It was imperative, therefore, to 



THE UPS AXD DOlVyS OF TRAVEL, ETC. 87 

slaughter them. A man near Santa Barbara had been compelled 
to sacrifice forty thousand sheep to save their skins. Another 
shipped three hundred by steamer to San Francisco. He 
showed us his account sales : Net proceeds of three hundred 
sheep, three dollars and thirt}- cents — a little more than one cent 
each. We passed through a ranche belonging to Mr. Pierce, 
eighteen miles long and eight miles wide. Generally there is a^ 
this season more than a foot of grass over it all, and it is well 
stocked with cattle and sheep. This year he could not cut a ton 
of hay on the whole of it. A few of his animals had been 
driven off, while most of them had been lost 

By the side of the road the land is portioned out in these 
enormous estates, there being very few small proprietors. One 
only remains in the hands of the Old Catholic Missions, and that 
is managed in the interest of the " Sisters of Our Lady of Gau- 
dalupe," who devote its proceeds to educating children of the 
poor. 

We reached Bell's ranche for dinner after a drive of sixty 
miles, not having met a single human being on the road. The 
ground squirrels might have been counted by thousands. They 
are the only animals that get a decent subsistence, as the acorns 
were as abundant as ever. Several deer ran across our track, 
and quails trotted along as familiarly as chickens, all seeming 
to be tamed by hunger. 

Approaching Gaudelupe, near the sea, the country was 
fenced in more for cultivation, but this, like the pasturage, 
was a failure. A few fanners had succeeded in raising a 
scanty crop of com, but a new plague had come to ruin them. 
For three days the sand from the shore had been blown 
over the fields by a hea\y gale, completely covering the 
crops. It was still blowing, and sadly incommoded travellers. 



83 THE ROUND TRIP. 

It blew into our eyes and nostrils so that we could hardly see 
or breathe. It rolled up in large drifts like snow, frequently 
bringing the coach to a standstill and obliging all the passengers 
to descend and wade behind. This disagreeable visitation of 
nature detained us two hours, so that we arrived at San 
Luis Obispo only at one o'clock in the morning, after making 
one hundred and fifteen miles steady travel in twenty-one hours. 

San Luis Obispo has recently been connected with the 
shore by a narrow-gauge railroad to Port Hartford through 
a canon nine miles long, and thus becomes another claimant for 
future supremacy as a commercial mart. 

Our opportunities for investigation were limited, as after 
a rest of only five hours we were called to breakfast and 
to resume our places on the coach. We went through an 
experience like to that of the previous morning on leaving 
Santa Barbara. The ascent, however, was not so long or so 
steep, and the clear weather made it enjoyable, affording a 
magnificent view of the valley and the western slope. We 
reached the highest level in two hours and rapidly descended 
into another immense park of live oaks. Winding through 
this beautiful grove for twenty miles after reaching the plateau, 
we came to Paso de Robles, one of the best-known watering- 
places of California. 

The law of compensation holds good for the Californian 
throughout. His winters of rain are succeeded by cloudless 
summers ; his occasional short crops are followed by years of 
abundant harvests, and after the depression of his mining stocks 
there is a rebound to a " booming market." Almost the only 
local disease to which he is subject is rheumatism. It requires 
but little medical knowledge to understand how a climate 
unfavorable to free action of the skin should tend to this 



THE UPS AND DOWNS OF TRAVEL, ETC. 89 

distressing malady. It certainly prevails to an extent unknown 
in the Eastern States, and persons affected by it there should 
not attempt to better their condition by coming here. But 
nature has furnished an offset to this misery of her favorite 
children in an abundance of mineral springs, most of which 
are especially adapted to the prevailing disease. Nobody has 
dyspepsia. If it is brought here it is cured by the air. There- 
fore chalybeate waters are not required, while sulphur springs 
are found in all parts of the State. 

Notwithstanding its difficulty of access, this hot spring of 
Paso de Robles is one of the most renowned and greatly 
frequented. We reached the place by a stage journey of one 
hundred and forty-two miles from Santa Barbara, and one may 
come by a direct line of railroad and eighty miles of coaching 
from San Francisco ; but the readiest approach is by steamer to 
San Luis Obispo, thence over the mountain by a romantic 
road twenty-seven miles long. Its situation is indicated by its 
name, the " Pass of the Oaks," where the vast park is narrowed 
between the ridges of mountains on both sides, and the scattered 
live-oaks have drawn together in a grove of evergreen arbors. 
Do not understand by the word " grove " a few trees in a clump ; 
there are thousands within sight under whose branches we may 
walk for miles. Among them is the hotel with its surrounding 
cottages. When we reflect that everything in the way of materials 
and furniture was dragged over the mountains for so many 
miles, we cannot withhold our admiration of the energy that has 
accomplished so much. The hotel would not be discreditable to 
Saratoga, and the cottages are pretty little boxes scattered 
about the grounds under the oaks, most of them with a parlor 
and two bedrooms to accommodate individuals or families. 
Near by is one of larger dimensions elaborately furnished, 



go THE ROUND TRIP. 

built by the late William C. Ralston, for his own use, but never 
occupied, as it was hardly finished at his untimely death. It 
is now leased by the proprietors of the hotel, who have estab- 
lished a novelty in hotel life. They have a first and second 
class price for rooms and table, the former paying eighteen 
and the latter twelve dollars per week. Thus the facilities 
of bathing are offered to many who cannot meet the higher 
charges. Another novelty is that the baths are free. This 
boon may be readily afforded, as Nature kindly aids in the 
act of benevolence by furnishing subterranean fuel for heating 
the water. The temperature of the great springs, gushing out 
from a fountain twelve feet square, is from 105 to no degrees 
Fahrenheit. 

Among my readers there may be chemists, physicians, inva- 
lids and hypochondriacs. As all who compose these various 
classes are supposed to be interested in this most celebrated 
of the California springs, I give the analysis, one in many respects 
indicating the general character of mineral waters in this region. 

Main Hot Sulphur Spring. (Temperature 110° F.) 

One imperial gallon contains — 

Sulphureted hydrogen gas 4.55 

Free carbonic acid gas 10.50 

Sulphate of lime 3.21 

Sulphate of potassa 88 

Sulphate of soda (Glauber's salts) 7.85 

Peroxide of iron 36 

Alumina .22 

Silica 44 

Bi-carbonate of magnesia 92 

Bi-carbonate of soda 50.74 

Chloride of sodium (common salt) 27.18 

Iodide and bromides, traces only. 

Organic matter 1.64 

Total solid contents per galion 93-44 



THE UPS AND DOWNS OF TRAVEL, ETC. gi 

1 All mineral springs have histories. If they have none that 
are authentic the}'^ have some invented for themj Carlsbad in 
Bohemia owes its importance to the cure of a sick hound 
belonging to the Emperor Charlemagne, followed by the cure of 
the dog's master. Kissingen, Baden Baden, Vichy, Aix en 
Savoie and all the rest,^ccording to the guide-books, " date 
from q^ high antiquity,"_and so this hot spring of Paso de 
Robles,[most like that of Aix in its taste and temperature, ^'^' was 
used and highly valued by the old mission priests eighty years 
ago, and before that much frequented by the Indians," according 
to the information that accompanies our bill of fare. 

; I do not doubt that in many cases the waters are efificacious, 
nor that in others they injure by injudicious use. One of the 
chief adjuncts of European spas is lacking here, and the want 
is a common one at American bathing resorts, namely, proper 
medical advice. The reverse may be carried to an absurd extent, 
as in Germany, where a whole town of five or ten thousand in 
habitants is absolutely under the control of a board of physicians 
who dictate the diet of the hotels and restaurants, stand by the 
" quellen " to see that their patients do not drink one gill too much 
or too little of the water, and prescribe baths of an exact degree 
of heat. But this extreme is safer than the practice prevailing 
here of placing no restrictions on the quantity of water taken 
or the heat and duration of baths. Every man is "a law unto 
himself," rivalling every other man in his ability to soak and to . 
be soaked. Time being always money, rheumatism is not sup- 
posed to wait for it, but its ejection from the citadel is carried 
on so vigorously that the citadel is more likely than its tenant to 
succumb. 

I We have here a reproduction of a monstrous German ab- 
surdity, the mud bath. At best it is a filthy invention, but at 



CJ2 THE ROUND TRIP. 

Franzenbad, where we first saw it, the nastiness of the thing 
was somewhat qualified. For each patient fresh mud was 
shovelled into a tub, so that he might be sure that the dirt in 
which he chose to wallow was that of the e-arth alone. Do 
you know the philosophy of the mud bath ? I never understood 
it until the information was imparted by a Franzenbad doctor. 
" How does it cure ? " I asked. " Veil, you see," he replied, 
" dere is seven million littel pooahs in the hooman shkin. De 
mineral of the mood goes into dem, and de disease comes out." 
"But how is that?" I ventured to observe. "If the mineral 
goes into the pores and the disease comes out, one would think 
they would meet half way in the cuticle." " Oh, you don't 
understand," answered the doctor after a little deliberation as to 
how this natural objection should be met. "Don't you notify 
yourself that half of seven million is three million five hoonderd 
towsand ? In one tree million five hoonderd towsand dere is 
room for de mineral to get in, and in de oder dere is room for 
de disease to get out ! " Now that is an explanation of the 
modus operandi of the mud bath as clear as the mud itself. So 
much for the European " mood bad " as practised with a 
decency superior to the habits of pigs. 

The mud bath of Paso de Robles is a sulphur spring not 
unlike the one used for general bathing and drinking pur- 
poses. Into this a sufficiency of dirt is thrown, and renewed 
once every week to make a hot mush. Will it be credited? 
There are "ladies' days" and "gentlemen's days" alternating, 
when a dozen or twenty people at a time go down to the hole 
and plant themselves up to their chins in this horrid mixture, 
simultaneously expelling and absorbing disease through their 
seven million pores ! 

Notwithstanding all, cures are effected at Paso de Robles 



THE UPS AND DOWNS OF TRAVEL, ETC. 93 

in spite of carelessness in water-drinking and bathing, and 
the detestable mud baths. The pure air, delightful scenery, 
freedom from care, horseback exercise and good table more 
than counterbalance these pernicious practices. Here we passed 
several days in the most independent style of hotel life, with a 
lovely little cottage for our " own hired house," opening its doors 
and windows for the refreshing air of the night, and by day 
reciibans sub tegmine " qiiercV^ more widespreading, green and 
impervious to the rays of the sun than the beech tree of the 
original text. 



94 



THE ROUND TRIP. 



CHAPTER Xril. 

End of the Stage-coach Romance — The Boundary of 
Southern California — Mexican Grants — Approach to 
Santa Cruz — Its Early History — Its Attractions. 

The romance of the stage-coach was by this time nearly dis- 
pelled. We looked forward with modified enthusiasm to eighty 
miles of travel on one of the hottest days of this " exceptional " 
season to bring us to a railroad station. During this toil of 
pleasure, however, we reflected that others suffered more, and 
pitied poor Colonel Kane, who is obliged, by the force of cir- 
cumstances of his own making, to " coach it " day after day 
over the same road, which time and habit must have made 
uninteresting. At all events, the charm of novelty was not 
exhausted, while the Colonel must sometimes feel like his 
brother whip of the White Mountains, whose stolidity was 
the wonder of the fashionable young ladies on his box. " How 
can you drive along as you do," they exclaimed, " without being 
enraptured with the beauties of nature on every hand ? " " Well, 
I'm kind of used to it," he replied. "I wish I could see some- 
thing new, and then like enough I'd gawk 'round same as you 
do now." 

There had come to be a weariness in this everlasting park 



END OF THE S TA GE- COACH R OMA NCE. g 5 

of live-oaks ; the ascent and descent of the mountains from 
repetition had grown tame. Rolling over the foot-hills we 
came to dine at Pleito, a small relay station on the fifteen- 
thousand-acre ranch of Mr. Pimberton, an English gentleman, 
whos-j mansion, built in old country style, gives the wild park 
of nature a striking likeness to the ornamented landscapes 
of Britain. Only two or three thousand acres were cultivated, 
and fortunately, as the land is low, the crops of barley were not 
a total loss. No grain was saved this year, all of it having been 
cut for hay to feed the starving cattle. 

In the evening we reached the small village of Soledad, pass- 
ing the night at an adobe inn, thankful that our drive of two 
hundred and sixty miles was at last accomplished, resolving to 
recommend others to go over the same route, but to take it in 
smaller instalments. 

A branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad begins at Soledad 
and runs tlirough the Salinas Valley for its especial benefit in 
carrying its grain to San Francisco. Uusually this product is 
abundant beyond the demand for domestic use. " Last year," 
said the conductor, " we hauled more than forty thousand tons 
of barley ; this year not a single bushel." This was one of the 
many tales of the famine. 

Following the bed of the Salinas River, we crossed it where 
it is usually passed by a ferry. Now, there was only a tiny 
stream three or four yards in width and a foot in depth. 
But drawing toward its point of discharge into the Bay of Mon- 
terey, the moisture of the sea air began to affect vegetation, 
and by the time the station of Pajaro, beyond Salinas, was 
reached, we were in a land of comparative plenty, leaving behind 
the saddest reminiscences of an otherwise pleasant journey 
through Southern California. That district terminates about 



gS THE ROUND TRIP. 

here, and with it the desolation of its generally fruitful fields. 
This is the dividing line of Southern California in distinction 
from the more northern part of the State. The term should 
not be confounded with "Lower" California, the country bounded 
on the north by San Diego, and still under Mexican rule. The 
annexation of that territory to the Union is not far distant, and 
is already contemplated by land speculators. 

On the passage from Panama the steamer landed a large 
party of Mexicanized Americans at Cape St. Lucas, whose 
avowed object it was to survey the most valuable lands of Lower 
California, and obtain grants from the government of Mexico, 
which, in its present condition of poverty, and with its uncertain 
future, is ready to sell them for trifling amounts. After buying 
up the whole peninsula for a few thousand dollars, these enter- 
prising gentlemen propose to colonize it at once, and, waiting 
their opportunity to join some revolutionary faction, obtain inde- 
pendence in that way. After this, admission to the Union will 
not be difficult, and the land-jobbing operation will in the end 
prove a certain success. It will merely be a speculation somewhat 
more extensive than those commonly undertaken throughout the 
State by gentlemen who are content to " grab " only one or two 
hundred thousand acres. " Grabbing" is a common practice, as 
may be inferred from frequent notices of the ranches and the 
rancheros. When men of large capital take advantage of the 
" desert land " law, and avail themselves of land otherwise un- 
productive for the purpose of extensive irrigation, they are the 
benefactors of the community. But when, as too often is the 
case, they keep the Mexican grants which they have purchased 
for the sole purpose of pasturage, where the land is adapted to 
grain and fruit, they can be regarded only as opposed to the best 
interests of the State. The surest method of bringing them to 



END OF THE STAGE-COACH ROMANCE. 97 

the adoption of a liberal policy, is to force them to it by taxing 
arable and grazing land at the same valuation. 

The wretched little village called Pajaro, where the narrow- 
gauge road to Santa Cruz connects with the main line, is re- 
markable for nothing except the number of its grog shops and 
the grasping disposition of the landlord of a very bad inn. After 
waiting two hours at this miserable den we were transferred to 
the Santa Cruz train. The narrow-gauge road, twenty-two miles 
long, was built by a few enterprising gentlemen with a view of 
benefiting their large landed interests, while it gives to Santa 
Cruz a circuitous communication with the capital. When the 
more direct line now coming from San Josd is completed, the 
value of the present road will be greatly lessened ; but tourists 
and pleasure seekers will always enjoy the wonderfully pictur- 
esque scenery along its track. Climbing a grade one hundred 
and thirty-six feet to the mile, spanning ravines on trestle-work 
ninety-fire feet in height, twisting through canons of enormous 
redwoods, turning precipices that overhang the sea, it winds 
along the northern side of the Bay of Monterey, affording a 
grand and comprehensive view. The engineer who planned it 
must have been a poet. Mr. Aptos is one of its owners, and he 
has perpetuated his name by christening a charmingly romantic 
glen, where he has built a large and costly hotel. This house stands 
in a grove of tall redwoods, almost rivalling those of Mariposa in 
size, and before it the ocean rolls in, dashing spray nearly to its 
doors. Other stations like this are situated at points selected 
by a judicious and refined taste, making the route to Santa Cruz 
as inviting as the city itself is attractive. 

The Rev. Dr. Willey, one of the Protestant pioneers of 1849, 
and Father Adam, who occupies the old mission established by 
his predecessors in 1791, have been indefatigable in searching 

7 



gS THE ROUND TRIP. 

the ancient monastic records bearing upon the discovery and 
settlement of Santa Cruz. From them we learn that this part 
of the coast was known to the Spaniards as early as the year 
1602, when Viscayno landed on the site of the present town and 
gave a glowing description of the Bay of Monterey, on which it 
stands, and of the surrounding country. In those days the 
world was too large, and there were not enough people to make 
available all the discoveries rapidly following the advent of Co- 
lumbus. So this region remained neglected until two centuries 
had elapsed. Then the missionaries, who had landed at San 
Diego ii^ 1769, followed up their adventures along the coast, es- 
tablishing themselves here in 1791. 

Fathers Salagar and Lopez arrived on the 25th day of Sep 
tember in that year. Practical old fathers were they. The rec 
ord which Father Adam produces says nothing of the tracts they 
brought for distribution, but it enumerates thirty cows, ten yoke 
of oxen, fourteen bulls, twenty steers, nine horses and seven 
mules. That was a missionary outfit in 1791. "And so they 
begin their work ; they teach such Indians as they can collect 
how to make adobes, and, as fast as they can, the arts of civilized 
life. They teach the men the use of tools, and they teach the 
women to weave." In three years the large church was built, 
its ruins only now standing, not long ago shattered by an 
earthquake. Vineyards were planted, cattle increased on the 
ranges, and Santa Cruz lived and thrived as a Spanish set- 
tlement, although its population did not become large until its 
occupancy by our countrymen at the close of the Mexican war. 
Then occurred that rapid change we have noted in all the old 
pueblos of California. The Anglo-Saxon race poured in with 
its industries, enterprise and taste, and the people's wealth in- 
creased, until Santa Cruz, the mission station selected first for 



END OF THE STAGE-COACH ROMANCE. ^g 

natural beauties, has become a city of six thousand permanent 
inhabitants, and the favorite resort of sojourners from all parts 
of the country. It is but a few hours distant by steam from San 
Francisco, and as the time will soon be less by rail, its rapid in- 
crease and prosperity are assured. 

Nature has scooped out with dainty hand a charming valley, in 
which is nestled this pretty little city, sheltered from the rough 
touch of the sea breeze that blows over the ridge and tempers the 
air with the breath of healthful elasticity. The range of the 
thermometer for the year is remarkably equal. There are no 
extremes of heat and cold, the humidity is sufficient to keep vege- 
tation green without having an injurious effect upon health, and it 
is not surprising that so many invalids, to whom a modified sea air 
is agreeable, have made it their home. The citizens are not 
niggardly of their land. Here and there in the main street is a 
block of stores and warehouses, but the dwellings are detached. 
Doubtless the inhabitants are fond of society, for picnics and 
excursions to the glens, the wooded hills and the shore seem to 
be their chief occupation. But they are still more fond of the com- 
panionship of the trees, the flowers and the vines that surround 
every house. Their gardens are their homes, of which the cot- 
tages form the smallest part. No man seems to have been al- 
lowed to build his house or to lay out his grounds in any way 
that does not produce a pleasing effect. 

With all their temptations to pleasure and indolence, the pic- 
nics, the riding and the bathing, in which so many persons ap- 
pear to be occupied, there is no want of energy and attention to 
business. Santa Cruz is a town of many industries. The pow- 
der works are very extensive. Obtaining saltpetre at a cheap 
rate of freight from the west coast of South America, they 
manufacture this article at a large profit. Last year its sales 



-oo THE ROUND TRIP. 

amounted to nearly half a million dollars. The dairies are 
their pride, for they send one hundred thousand dollars' worth 
of butter annually to San Francisco. They export a great 
deal of lime. The back hills being heavily timbered with 
redwood, great quantities are reduced to lumber, not only for 
home use, but to ship to other places on the coast. The grape 
is in high cultivation, and excellent wine is made in large 
quantities. Mr. Jarvis, one of the principal growers, took us 
through his establishment and offered — please let it be under- 
stood, at various times — glasses of his port, sherry, muscatel, 
angelica, hock and brandy. His wines readily command from 
one dollar to one dollar and fifty cents per gallon, and his brandy 
three dollars and fifty cents. One of his vineyards covers sev- 
enty-five acres, and produces three hundred tons of grapes. Ex- 
tensive as is the wine product of California, Mr. Jarvis thinks it 
is only in its infancy. He has a correct view of its development 
when he says that everybody is in too much haste. He has been 
for years engaged in reaching after perfection, and has not yet 
arrived at it. " Every man should plant for his own children," 
he observed, with more wisdom and regard for posterity than is 
often displayed in this selfish age. " If we all do that, in the 
next generation California will be the vineyard of the world." 

A short narrow-gauge railroad has been recently built, chiefly 
for the purpose of bringing lumber down from the forests, while 
it serves admirably for purposes of recreation. It is only eight 
miles long, but they are such eight miles as are rarely travelled. 
In less than a quarter of an hour we began mounting a grade 
of one hundred and twenty-six feet to the mile, through a 
dense forest of redwood. We arrived at the station of the 
" Big Trees," where was a forest compared with which the 
pines of the eastern mountains are dwarfs. Leaving the train 



END OF THE STAGE-COACH ROMANCE. loi 

and walking under their shade for a quarter of a mile, we 
came to the veritable giants of the forest. The great sequoias 
of Mariposa are indeed somewhat larger than these, but it is a 
long distance to them ; and if seeing big trees be the only object 
of one's search, it maybe fairly counted that the difference in siz^ 
is not enough to counterbalance the length of the journey. Or- 
dinary sight-seeing can be more easily gratified by coming to 
Santa Cruz and making the trip on this little railroad. 

Is it not enough to look upon these slightly inferior giants, 
one of which is two hundred and seventy-eight feet high, sixty 
feet in circumference, and hollowed out at the base and occupied 
as a house, with dimensions of sixteen feet by twenty ? This 
is the largest of them, although there are many not much 
smaller. To a casual observer the difference between these trees 
and those of Mariposa and Calaveras is not apparent ; but it is 
asserted that the latter are the true sequoia, and these a dif- 
ferent variety of redwood. The trees here are shorter lived ; 
one of them, on being cut down, showed by its rings that it had 
flourished only two thousand eight hundred years, while an 
ancient rival in Calaveras scored three thousand two hundred 
and fifty-two years, during which it had grown to the height 
of two hundred and ninety-six feet. It is to be hoped that the 
public spirit of Santa Cruz will keep this noble forest intact and 
secure from the ruthless woodman's axe until it has time to attain 
to the size and age of its competitors. 



I02 THE ROUND TRIP. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

From Santa Cruz to Sax Jose — The Garden of Santa 
Clara Valley — The Towns of San Jose and Santa 
Clara — Another Mission — The Church and the 
Grape-Wine and Brandy — The Enterprise of Gen- 
eral Naglee. 

We left Santa Cruz on a hot summer morning in an open 
■wagon, uncomfortable from the heat and the dust \Yhile toiling 
slowly up the mountain. That is now forgotten ; but we shall 
never forget the view from the summit, which on one side com- 
manded the ocean, and on the other the lovely Santa Clara Valley 
— a fruit garden, and, as its people boast, the most beautiful 
one of California. There it lay before us, a garden of one and 
a quarter million acres, fifty-two miles long, thirty-four miles 
wide, variegated with grass-covered undulating hills, orchards, 
vineyards and yellow fields of grain, spotted all over with the 
ever-present great live-oaks that, from this height, seemed like 
little green bushes no higher than the heads of wheat among 
which they were scattered. The noble six-horse team had 
brought the last strain upon their muscles to reach the summit, 
and then, obedient to the crack of the whip in the hands of a 



FROM S A. VTA CRUZ TO SA.V yOSE. 103 

skilful driver, darted down the mountain, whirling round steep 
comers and flying through a cloud of dust as if they enjoyed 
the sport and were laughing inside their blinders at the ter- 
rified passengers behind them. The cultivated plains were soon 
reached, and long avenues of trees lined the way to the capital 
of the count}-, the first capital of the State before San Francisco 
robbed it of its rank. San Jose has lost its political importance, 
but the refinement and easy luxury for which its people are con- 
spicuous amply comoensate for the loss of a noisy rabble of 
office-hunting demagogues ; and its nearness to the great com- 
mercial centre has given it many advantages beside those of its 
natural opportunities. 

The towns of San Jose and Santa Clara may be considered 
as one. They are connected by a long avenue of willows, 
planted by the missionary settlers in 1799. This wide street of 
three miles, called the Alameda, is shaded by triple rows of 
willow, poplar, and eucalyptus trees, whose variety of foliage 
has a most pleasing effect. The houses, with a good taste 
that is very general, are at a little distance from the road 
and partly concealed from it by a perennial shrubber}-. It 
presents a gay scene in the afternoon, when ladies and gentle- 
men gallop at full speed with a display of daring horsemanship 
that excites our admiration. 

San Jose, and its suburb Santa Clara, embracing each other 
as they meet under their Alameda, have twenty thousand inhabi- 
tants, and those of the whole valley number somewhat more than 
thirty thousand. The lazy Mexicans, sparsely scattered over it 
previous to the American occupation of 1849, devoted no atten- 
tion to its cultivation, hardly raising an acre of wheat, and al 
lowing the whole of its area to be grown over with mid grass 
for the pasturage of their cattle. 



I04 THE ROUND TRIP. 

The wants of those people are few. Wherevei the Spanish 
ranchero is to be found, he avoids, as much as possible, the 
contact of what we deem civilization. He cares not for books, 
for society, or even for fruits or bread, his body being as 
insufficiently nourished as his mind. He never plants a 
shade tree, and if one happens to grow near to his adobe 
house he cuts it down as the easiest attainable fuel. Came 
seca, his dried meat, which he prefers to fresh beef, and black 
beans, the only vegetable he plants, compose his whole diet. 
With this food, little clothing, a good saddle and a good horse, 
his existence is complete and all his wants are satisfied. The 
old Catholic padres succeeded in domesticating and converting 
the Indians, but their influence upon these greasers was of little 
account. The missionaries alone gave their attention to build- 
ing, manufactures, farming and vineyards, invariably selecting 
such favored spots as the Santa Clara Valley for the scenes of 
their operations. When Vancouver landed at San Francisco, 
in 1792, and made an excursion into this part of the country, 
he was astonished and delighted at the progress the Francis- 
cans had made. Their establishments were unfortunately 
secularized when Mexico as unfortunately obtained her inde- 
pendence, and no further progress was made until this ter- 
ritory was ceded to the United States. Then the soil of the 
valley was struck by the wand of a magician. The magic of 
freedom, intelligence and enterprise gave it a new life, and robed 
it with the beautiful garments which now cover the nakedness of 
thirty years ago. 

Already the assessed value of its real estate exceeds thirty- 
one million dollars, the farming land commanding the highest 
prices on account of its nearness to San Francisco, which is sup- 
plied with vegetables and fruit. 



FROM SA.VTA CRUZ TO SAX JOSE. 105 

We drove out to the old mission, whose great possessions 
have now dwindled down to a parish church and thirty acres of 
land. It is under the charge of Father Cassidy, who received 
us courteously, and entertained us with histories of the olden 
times when his predecessors flourished in their abundance, dis- 
pensing unlimited hospitality which he modestly emulated as he 
offered us a bottle of wine of his own manufacture from 
the vines they had planted. The good father, beside all his 
parochial duties, attends personally to his vineyard, and it is his 
chief satisfaction to furnish for the sacramental use of Catholic 
and Protestant alike the pure juice of the grape, which he pro- 
vides at the moderate cost of fifty cents per gallon. It is an 
excellent red wine, bearing transportation, and quite as good as 
the French claret, costing one dollar per bottle. Father Cassidy 
says that the old missionaries understood the true theory of 
vine culture, and practised it successfully by planting their vine- 
yards on side-hills instead of upon levels — the latter mode now 
commonly adopted increasing the crop, but producing more 
watery grapes. Certainly this active priest combines much 
practical knowledge with his clerical duties, entitling him to 
respect in a double sense as " a laborer in the vineyard." 
The old church and cloisters of the monastery were built of 
adobe, and notwithstanding the six feet thickness of the walls, 
an earthquake had tumbled a part to the ground and shaken 
the whole pile, so that it was riven by gaping seams. The 
crumbling nature of the material and its ding)- color, prematurely 
gave the ruins an appearance of age equal to that of stone after 
the lapse of many hundred years. General Naglee, of San Jose, 
has devoted twenty years to the selection and culture of the most 
desirable varieties of the French and German wine grapes, and 
to experiments in the^manufacture of brand)'. His abundant 



io6 THE ROUND TRIP. 

means enable him to study the problem at his leisure, without 
regard to immediate profits, for his only desire is that the com- 
munity shall benefit by his labor. His grounds are a mile 
distant from the centre of the town, and he is generally at home, 
taking pleasure in receiving his many friends, and in explaining 
his processes to those who desire to be informed. 

After driving over his grounds of forty acres, one-third of 
them planted with foreign grapes, he introduced us to his manu- 
facturing establishment, where are tne presses and the distilling 
apparatus. Four immense vats were capable of containing 
16,000 gallons each, and nine others of 4,000 each, gave capacity 
for 100,000 gallons of wine, and 20,000 gallons of brandy vintage. 
General Naglee preserves but little wine, his chief object being 
to make the purest and best brandy in the world at whatever cost 
of time and money. Very few people know how brandy is made ; 
very few know what brandy is, and, if truth were told, in our day 
there is very little brandy. Probably 999 gallons out of every 
1,000 that are sold as brandy are a vile compound of whiskey, 
distilled spirits, and chemical abominations. This is equally 
true of wines. 

Now, if one thing is palpable without demonstration, it is that 
the stomach craves stimulants, and these it will have either of food 
or drink. The Bengalee and the Malay fortify themselves with 
pepper and curry, the Dutchman uses schnapps for the same 
purpose, and the Scotch and Irish have a pure whiskey ; the 
Englishman has his beer and porter, the Frenchman, the Spaniard 
and the Italian their wine, the Chinese his tea and the Turk his 
coffee. Either of these articles of food and drink used to excess 
is as injurious as the gluttony of plum-pudding or drinking too 
much water. As I never suffered from indulgence in any stim- 
ulant, but have acquired a life long dyspepsia by aqueous in- 



FROM SANTA CRUZ TO SAN JOSE. 107 

temperance at a hydropathic establishment, I hope I shall not 
be misunderstood in advocating with earnestness the culture of 
the grape, for the benefit not only of California, but of the peo- 
ple at large, so that the truest temperance may prevail through 
the land. I would not say any thing to encourage the general use 
of distilled liquors ; but no one except a fanatic will deny that 
they are sometimes necessary, and that they are agreeable luxuries. 
At any rate, the fact is patent that they will be drunk, and there- 
fore it is the more desirable that a pure article should take the 
place of the villanous compounds by which dram-drinkers are 
poisoned. 

General Naglee justly esteems himself a philanthropist in 
devoting himself to this special object. His brandy is of two 
classes, the inferior made after the process of most European 
manufacture, which consists in distilling the dregs of mashed 
grapes that have been used for wine. This he sells as fast as 
it is produced. Fortunately he is a gentleman of great wealth, 
or he could not afford the costly experiment of producing brandy 
of the higher grade. This is made by using only the finest 
French and German grapes, and separating the juice between the 
pulp and the skin without any pressure to bring out the delete- 
rious essential oils which they contain, and thus the very purest 
juice of the grape is fermented and distilled into the choicest 
liquor. As yet he has not sold any, 60,000 gallons being in 
store, some of it in the cellar ten years. 

In distilling brandy from wine, the process results in saving 
only twenty gallons out of a hundred. When all the vats are 
filled Avith one hundred thousand gallons, the residue is conse- 
quently twenty thousand gallons of pure spirit. This is stored 
in immense casks, each labelled with revenue stamps, certifying 
that ninety cents per gallon has been paid to the government. 



lo8 THE ROUND TRIP. 

By the exertions of the State Vinicultural Society, the law has 
been so far modified that no excise is now paid on brandy 
until it has been made three years. An important amount of 
interest is thus saved. It would be curious to compute, if any 
one cares to make more figures than I do, the cost of this ten 
years' old brandy that we tasted, supposing that at the outset, 
including the tax, it cost the manufacturer %i P^>* gallon, and 
that money has commanded here all the time the annual interest 
of twelve per centum, with an addition of twelve per cent, for 
leakage and evaporation. Let this be compounded, and the 
conclusion will be reached that the experiment is too expensive 
to be productive of any thing but self-satisfaction to General 
Naglee, and of gratitude from those enjoying his hospitality and 
profiting by his outlay. 

Temperance people and prohibitionists may settle the wine 
question among themselves as far as it bears upon the morals 
of the community of which they have assumed the charge. 
There are, however, some people who do not choose to be 
subject to their dictation. They may be pleased to know 
what progress has been made by California in the production of 
the grape. 

From the most trustworthy sources at hand, it is established 
that in the whole State not less than 50.000 acres are planted 
with vines, numbering from 40,000,000 to 45,000,000, and aver- 
aging from 700 to 1,000 vines per acre. In the southern and 
interior counties the yield is more plentiful, each acre producing, 
on the average, six tons of grapes, while in the coast counties 
four tons is considered a fair crop. From one ton of grapes 
130 to 140 gallons of wine are pressed. Last year 8,000,000 
gallons were produced, but the vine capacity this year is estima- 
ted at 10,000,000. Most of the wines have heretofore been 



FROM SANTA CRUZ TO SAN JOS^, 1 09 

made from the old " Mission grape." The exact history of this 
prohfic vine is lost in the antiquity of one hundred years. This 
only is certain, that it was introduced by the Franciscans with 
their religion as a part of their civilization. It is worthy of re- 
flection that religious teachers have been the men to whom the 
world is inost indebted for good wine, from the " first preacher 
of righteousness," down. It has been remarked, as a matter of 
history, reflecting great credit upon the Catholic clergy, that they 
first produced to perfection the grapes from which are manufac- 
tured the wines of Johannisberg, Steinberg, Hockheim, Clos-Vou- 
geot, I'Hospice, Chambertin, Chateau Yquem, St. Julien, and 
various other celebrated brands, and that the first champagne 
was made by a priest. 

We know that the first vines of California were planted at 
St. Gabriel in 177 1, but it is not settled if this was done with 
roots or cuttings imported from Spain or Mexico. General 
Vallejo, who has given no little attention to the subject, says 
that the Fathers first attempted to make wine from the common 
wild grape of the country, but not succeeding in this, they raised 
them from the seeds of imported raisins. From these the white 
and blue varieties were both produced, but the former was aban- 
doned, while the latter was adopted and cultivated at all 
the mission establishments. Since the advent of Americans, 
many other varieties have been introduced. Colonel Haraszthy, 
who alone imported two hundred and fifty distinct varieties, 
gave them all a fair trial, selecting from them, as adapted to va- 
rious parts of the State, forty or fifty of the best. These are 
not all used for wine. Many are especially devoted to brandy, 
table use and raisins. I have no data for these two latter pro- 
ducts, but it is known that one hundred and fifty thousand gal- 
lons of brandy are annually distilled, large and increasing quan- 



no THE ROUND TRIP. 

titles of raisins are cured, and beside the grapes eaten in the 
State, many cars are laden with them in the season for distribu- 
tion from San Francisco to New York. 

A very intelligent gentleman remarked, to my surprise, that 
as the mining interest of California had been superseded by 
cereals, so they will before many years be neglected, and the 
specialties of the State be fruit and wine. It is possible that he 
may be right, although the day is more distant than his prophecy 
indicated. For grain production, this soil is inexhaustible, but 
by means of careless farming is rapidly impoverished, while the air 
and sunlight, which have more to do with the culture of the vine 
than the ground, have life-giving influences that can never die. 
Let the California farmer take warning from this prediction. 
Let him do something more for his soil than to comb it. It 
needs care as his good horses need grooming, or he will run it 
to death. He will realize this one of these days when he calls 
on Oregon for bread. 

San Francisco is reached in two hours from San Jose, by the 
railroad passing through the beautiful suburbs of Menlo Park, 
Belmont, and San Mateo. Scattered over them are the country 
residences of tliose who can spare time from business to enjoy 
the luxury of ease, and to dispense the sumptuous hospitality for 
which so many of them have a merited reputation. The environs 
have been often described, and are well known to every stranger 
who visits the city. 



NOR THERN CALIFORNIA. j 1 1 



CHAPTER XV. 

Northern California — Mount Shasta in the Distance — 
Railroads — Farming on a Large Scale. 

We came north to get a nearer view of Mount Shasta ; it 
seems but ten miles distant — a pyramid of snow from its peak 
to the pine trees that spread their branches at its base. It 
seems so near ; and yet we might reflect that the apparent 
base would have a far different color in this temperature of 
ICO degrees, if it were not merely a part of the summit, for 
Shasta is one hundred miles away. So clearly defined are 
its lines in the sky, that at Marysville, ninety miles further 
south, it is often visible in a favorable atmosphere. Difficult as 
the region about Shasta is in its approaches, the romantic 
scenery, cool atmosphere, mineral springs, and hunting and fish- 
\ng, annually bring many visitors to Sessions — a favorite watering- 
place of Californians who can afford to leave their business for 
a long vacation. Tourists unwilling to go away with only the 
satisfaction to be obtained from the charmingly deceptive view 
of Shasta at a distance, have only to follow up the Oregon Rail- 
road forty miles further to Redding, and then take the stage- 
coach for seventy miles to their destination 



112 THE ROUND TR/P. 

Eastern people have but a small conception of the railroad 
enterprises of California. They arc content with the knowl- 
edge that there is a direct route from New York to San Fran- 
cisco, but know little of its connections with the many domestic 
tenders from which so much of its trade is derived. The rail- 
roads stretch out their iron arms to grasp every section of the 
State. 

The Northern Pacific runs eighty miles along the coast to 
Healdsburg, on its way to Oregon. A narrow gauge is looking 
in the same direction. The California Pacific has reached Wil- 
liams, one hundred and twenty-one miles to the north, and the 
Oregon branch, on which we arrive at Red Bluffs, distant two 
hundred and seventeen miles from San Francisco, goes on forty 
miles further to Redding, and is bound to extend beyond the 
Oregon line. All these roads have lateral branches. Wherever 
there is a valley for wheat to grow or a forest for timber to be 
felled, a train of cars stands in waiting to bring produce and 
lumber to market for shipping or home consumption. 

We came to Vallejo in two hours by steamer, leaving San 
Francisco at an early hour of the morning, and passing the time 
— which seemed only too short — in gazing at the surroundings 
of the wonderful bay, which is equalled only by that of Rio de Ja- 
neiro, and, like it, surrounded by mountains whose verdant slopes 
reach to the shore. Saucelito lay smiling under a high cliff, and 
San Rafael coyly hid itself away in its dreamy valley of shade, 
its church spires peeping up through the shrubbery to tell where 
it might be found. Vallejo, fondly expected by its founder (for 
whom it is called) to become the capital of the State, refuses to 
be comforted for its disappointment, and will not put on any 
beautiful garments. A plain, matter-of-fact suburb, it serves, in 
connection with Mare Island, as a naval depot, beside deriving 



NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. 1 13 

some little importance as a point of railroad debarkation. The 
train rolled into the country through a forest of fruit trees; 
and then, with the exception of little towns and villages on the 
road, it ran through one far-spread field of wheat. 

There were trees and vines in plenty, but their abundance 
was lost in the immensity of the grain. It was the time of 
harvest, and here plenty rewarded the toil of the husbandman, 
and sleek cattle and sheep followed in the train of the reapers 
to revel in pastures left for their use. 

Stopping at " Knight's Landing," we called on Mr. Reed, 
and were told that he was busy in the field. There he was found 
in a two-thousand-acre lot, superintending his force of thirty 
men, his steam engine, headers, wagons, mules, thresher and 
separator, all working harmoniously together, gathering in the 
crop ; and this was a small outfit compared with that of Mr. 
Boggs, at Princeton, with whom we passed two days, entertained 
most agreeably in a princely farmer's mansion. There, in 
a six-thousand-acre field, machinery was multiplied as one 
hundred acres each day was harvested, and the stream of 
wheat rolled into bags at the rate of twelve bushels per minute. 
Not contented with farming, Mr. Boggs gives his attention to 
raising some of the finest horses in the State. He owns one 
hundred thousand acres in California, and fifty thousand in 
Oregon. Most of it is pasturage, for he raises not more than 
one hundred and fifty thousand bushels of wheat. He has a 
few thousand cattle, he could not recollect the exact number, 
nor could he tell if his sheep would count more than forty thou- 
sand, but he knew they were not below that figure. They are 
sheared twice in the year, averaging eight pounds of wool each, 
and netting, clear of all expenses, something more than one 
dollar per head. Were they not thinned out for the market. 



114 THE ROUND TRIP. 

they would double themselves every two years ; and twenty 
thousand being annually sold at one dollar a head, there is a 
total income of sixty thousand dollars. Here is a model Cali- 
fornia farmer — a State Senator, honored by his fellow-citizens 
with the directorship of various public institutions — who came 
into Sacramento thirty years ago, with his boots hanging over 
his shoulder, and who modestly says that he too has grown rich 
because he could not help it. We have sojourned with nobility 
in their castles, and have been accustomed to the etiquette of 
flunky servility which calls for the address of " My lord " and 
" Your lordship ; " but "John Boggs — hullo, John ! " is the style 
our friend receives at Princeton, where he is the lord of manors 
compared to which an English estate is a potato-patch, 

A pleasanter, though longer route to Princeton, would have 
been to ascend the river by one of the stern-wheel steamers that 
ply upon it. Our host, Mr. Boggs, gave us a little experience 
of steamboating when, from the bank near his house, he signalled 
the captain to haul into the shore and take us all on board for a 
short trip of a few miles. At this place the stream is scarcely 
one hundred feet wide, but the romantic beauty of the scenery 
in frequent turns is wonderful to contemplate. The river is 
bordered by a forest of oaks for miles, and these great trees are 
draped with festoons of wild grape-vines, loaded with early 
clusters that perfume the air. This little excursion was termi- 
nated on meeting the carriage that followed us along the 
road by the shore. Before the advent of the railroad, all pas- 
sengers and freight were transported on the river; and the 
wheat produced in the greater part of this district is still sent 
down to market by steamers as a cheaper conveyance than by rail. 

Jacinto, fifteen miles above Princeton, is the capital of 
the dukedom of Dr. Glenn, for he owns its site and its sur- 



NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. U^ 

roundings. I have gradually introduced you to Dr. Glenn, 
first describing what might be termed a large farm at Knight's 
Landing, next a larger one at Princeton, and now coming to the 
largest estate under cultivation in California, or in the world — 
fifty-six thousand acres planted in wheat ! The doctor's modest 
cottage is a house indicative of occupation by a farmer of one 
or two hundred acres. " Father is not at home," said one of 
the young ladies, "but he is about the place somewhere ; if you 
like, I will go with you on horseback and find him." This ar- 
rangement being perfectly satisfactory, we were soon galloping 
through the wheat fields. After a sharp ride of half an hour, I 
began to think my little pilot had lost her bearings ; but she 
assured me that her father was only seven miles off, and we 
should soon find him, and we shortly afterward met him on his 
return. 

The crop of this year was below the average, as the doctor 
said it would not yield more than twenty bushels to the acre. It 
is his custom to plant two-thirds of the land annually and allow 
one-third to recuperate. In this he shows more wisdom and 
a greater regard for the future than a Californian farmer usually 
has. He finds that the estate is so large that it is burdensome, 
and has begun to lease parts of it on shares. It would be well 
for themselves and for the community if all the great landholders 
should realize their mistake in extending their territories beyond 
moderate bounds. Most of them are never satisfied, but are 
always craving more land. By this means some of the richest are 
absolutely poor. Every dollar they get being expended in the 
purchase of other acres they are always borrowers. 

In the neighborhood of Los Angeles we were taken by a 
friend to visit a property of several thousand acres. The pro- 
prietor was not the owner of a decent suit of clothes, and as the 



ii6 THE ROUND TRIP. 

family had just dined upon all the bacon they had, he could not 
offer us a morsel of food. The great productiveness of the soil 
offers irresistible temptations to purchasing more and to borrow- 
ing money at high rates of interest. In ordinary seasons a man 
may be able to pay eighteen per cent, for loans, and at the 
end of four years to repay the money and to own the land. This 
state of things encourages the establishment of banks in every 
small village j but, whatever are their profits, it cannot be 
healthy practice for a man to keep himself poor in order to grow 
rich. 

The private village of Jacinto is a curiosity. Dr. Glenn owns 
it, and therefore controls its religion, morals and trade. He 
vi'ill not have any false doctrine, heresy or schism preached in 
his church, nor any liquor sold in his tavern ; and the store, a 
large two-story brick building, is well supplied with every con- 
ceivable necessity, furnishing at just prices all that the people 
he employs require. An immense warehouse, capable of stor- 
ing four hundred thousand bushels of wheat, stands on the river 
bank, where its contents can be slid on board the steamers. 
There are the stage house, the wagon factory, the blacksmith's 
shop, the shoemaker, the tailor, the butcher and the baker ; here 
are Sam Lew's store and " intelligence office," the respective 
laundries of Sue Wan, Clong Sing and Jim Yew, all these estab- 
lishments being necessary to the support of Dr. Glenn and his 
family, and of the families of his laborers, or for conducting the 
business of the ranch. And there sat the lord of the domain, 
dressed in his home-spun suit, seemingly unconscious that he 
owned a dollar. As he delights in hospitality, his cottage is al- 
ways full to overflowing, and it needs no card of invitation to 
make any lady or gentleman an acceptable inmate. Not content 
with a welcome to the coming, but with a readiness to speed their 



NOR THERN CAL IFORNIA. 1 1 7 

parting guests, one of the sons drove us over to Chico in the 
evening. 

Crossing the Sacramento, the road lay for four miles through 
groves of oaks and wild vines, and, emerging from the river 
bottom, kept on through nine miles of continuous wheat fields 
until it reached the town. Chico is a pretty village of three 
thousand inhabitants, owing its prosperity to farming and to the 
lumber brought down from the Sierras in a flume for a distance 
of forty miles, and shipped by the Oregon Railroad running 
through the place. 

General Bidwell has a property of twenty-three thousand 
acres in the immediate neighborhood, of which one hundred 
and fifty are planted in vines, and as much in peach, cherry, 
almond, olive, fig, orange and lemon groves. As from some 
cause he has not been successful in making wine, he has turned 
his attention to drying raisins, which industry promises larger 
returns. His career affords another instance of prosperity 
founded on energy ; for on the very spot where his castellated 
mansion rears its walls, formerly stood the little adobe hut where 
he once dispensed liquors and cigars over his bar. He may 
justly feel a pride in the change of his fortunes. 

After a description of Dr. Glenn's farm, that of Mr. Reavis, 
near Chico, may seem to be scarcely worth a reference, as it con- 
tains only twelve thousand acres. Nevertheless, the manage- 
ment of the estate is admirable. After visiting the harvest field, 
where fifty men busily worked together like so many parts of a 
clock, we inspected the stables of blood horses, one of which, 
" Blackbird," had been purchased from Mr. Boggs for ten thou- 
sand dollars. The young son of the proprietor said with becom- 
ing modesty, " Father hasn't much of a ranch, and doesn't care 
to have a big one. He sticks to raising wheat, and doesn't care 



Il8 THE ROUND TRIP. 

for stock, for we have only two thousand head of cattle and three 
hundred horses over yonder in the mountains." 

The ranches of a few gentlemen have been mentioned, as 
specimens of the great landholders of California whose enterprise 
is so creditable to their industry. It may be observed that their 
present estates have invariably accumulated from small begin- 
nings. Indeed, there is scarcely a single instance of a man's 
" starting in " with wealth that has not ended in failure, whereas 
there are thousands of poor men who have become rich by 
farming. 

When these great estates are divided — as they will be before 
many years elapse — into small farms of one or two hundred 
acres, capable of being easily worked by single families, and af- 
fording them a comfortable livelihood ; when seven millions in- 
stead of seven hundred thousand people live in California to 
work, and work to live upon her wheat, corn, barley, oats, cattle, 
sheep, hogs, fruits and vineyards, all its vast population may 
boast of a solid wealth derived from its only true source ; for it 
will be the reward of honest labor. 



REVIEW. 119 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Review of the Mining and Aortcultural Interests of 
California — Along the Sacramento — Napa — Calistoga 
— The Petrified Forest — The Geysers — San Francisco. 

Following the course of the Sacramento River on the Oregon 
Railroad, we came to Marysville, fifty miles from Chico, still a 
town of some importance as centre of a large farming population, 
although the activity it once displayed as a great mining camp of 
the placer diggings has subsided. To this district the first pros- 
pectors were attracted, and for years the gulches and sluices 
yielded them a golden harvest. Now there are no more nuggets 
to be found by grubbing or chance, but in their place the fields 
are covered with golden wheat. 

The changes of business and industries give force to a 
remark made by Governor Stanford. " California," said he, 
'• owes her prosperity to agriculture. If every mine could be 
sunk out of sight ten thousand fathoms deep it would be 
for her advantage." Continuing the conversation, he added, 
as nearly as his words can be remembered, " Mining is com- 
paratively an unproductive industry. All the laborers engaged 
in it do not earn as much as farm hands upon the average, 
while they are losers in health, and it gives rise to a species 



I20 THE ROUND TRIP. 

of gambling which robs the whole community. Now, there are 
three thousand people in San Francisco who live directly or in- 
directly from the purchase and sale of stocks, averaging in their 
expenses $3000 per year. There are ^9,000,000 which they cer- 
tainly do not earn, but take from their victims. These men 
should earn this money for themselves by being producers. 
Then they would not rob their fellow-citizens ; and if they and 
the miners were all at work in the wheat fields, our railroads 
could well spare the profits made from the transportation of ore 
and bullion." What has been said of Southern California may 
be quoted as proof that farming is as uncertain as mining when 
the crops fail, and there is not only a loss of harvest, but of cat- 
tle and sheep. It is true that years of drought sometimes occur, 
but these may always be provided for by selecting lands that can 
be irrigated, while stock may be preserved by taking propet 
precautions. TJie melancholy loss of animal life by starvation, 
might have been avoided. There was an abundant harvest even 
upon some uplands, but the farmers, aftergoing through the wheat- 
fields with "headers," and taking off the tops of the stalks, either 
brought in their stock from the ranges to feed it down, or they 
only set it on fire to be rid of it. 

If that straw had been cut and stacked, the mute blessings of 
hundreds of thousands of poor beasts would have come down 
upon those farmers' heads, and what they would value more, the 
lives of the animals would have been saved for their profit. 

Passing through Sacramento we reached Napa on the 4th 
of July. The anniversary was there celebrated by a great 
barbacue, to which all were freely invited. Oxen and sheep 
were roasted whole in long trenches, and brought upon the 
grass for a general attack of pocket-knives and fingers, the meat 
being finely basted by a dust storm that made it a more suitable 



REVIEW. 121 

food for chickens than for the men who had the grit to partake 
of it. Then was read the inevitable Declaration, that shibboleth 
of our political faith, which somehow, in spite of its accepted 
truth, fails to convince the ragged tramp who looks up at the 
palace windows of the millionaire that all men are free and 
equal. After that came the oration, an echo of the hundreds of 
thousands of orations that have resounded through a hundred 
years, until the want is felt of a new revolution to give birth to 
an original idea. 

— - From Napa to Calistoga it is twenty-five miles by rail. Here 
are the Hot Springs, a " resort," as every thing of that kind is 
called in California. This must be chiefly a resort for people 
who suffer from a deficiency of animal heat. Enclosed in a 
deep and really beautiful valley, the sun has a full play upon the 
soil, sometimes producing a heat of one hundred and ten degrees 
in the shade, as it did at this time. By a little digging anywhere 
hot water is reached. The condition of the inhabitants in the 
summer season may be imagined; it may be agreeable enough 
in the winter, when fuel is not required on account of the subter- 
ranean steam apparatus. _j 

We rode to the " Petrified Forest," six miles from town, 
on the Santa Rosa road over the mountain separating the Napa 
from the Sonoma Valley. This wood bears a name likely to mis- 
lead one's ideas of the reality. The forest is like all others, the 
present generation of trees being green and vigorous. The 
petrifaction is in the trunks of their predecessors, which were 
discovered buried several feet in the ground, and were exhumed 
for the gaze of the curious. The proprietor of the land is 
an ignorant old Dutchman, who told us that the trees were 
"feefteen t'ousand year old." When asked for the certificate of 
their birth, he retorted, " Veil, how old you calls them ? " We 



122 THE ROUND TRIP. 

admitted our ignorance, which gave him the advantage, and he 
triumphantly exclaimed, "Den vot for you doubts my vord?" 
The age of the Petrified Forest may therefore be considered as 
settled. Some of the fallen trunks are in absolute preservation, 
the bark and broken segments having the exact appearance of 
wood, although they have turned to heavy stones. They have 
all the characteristics of the red woods which resemble the 
sequoias of the Mariposa and Calaveras groves. It may be 
possible to unearth some which equal or exceed them in size, with 
a sufficiency of rings to corroborate the Dutchman's theory. 
The largest one measured thirty-three feet in circumference near 
its base. What peculiar properties of soil produced the petrifac- 
tion must be left to the investigation of naturalists, who may 
obtain some further information from the intelligent guide. 

Calistoga is on the direct road to the Geysers. These hot 
spouting springs are visited by tourists not only for the sake of 
the phenomena, but for the drive over the romantic mountain 
road with the renowned Jehu Foss. It being all up-hill work, 
there was no opportunity for him to display his skill ; so he 
entertained us with descriptions of the country and the quicksilver 
mines, formerly so productive to this neighborhood, but at present 
greatly neglected. Descending somewhat from the highest point, 
we came at evening to the hotel, twenty-six miles from Calistoga. 

As to the Geysers, it is a mistake to suppose that they are 
high spouts of water. They are simply a group of boiling 
springs, extending half a mile through a mountain canon, where 
we walked amid the hissing and roaring noises of steaming 
sulphurous gases and over hot lava-beds. There is nothing 
that is beautiful, but much that is fearful about them. The de- 
scent to their valley seemed like the preliminary steps taken by 
.^neas, when he was piloted by the Sibyl to Hades. It is a fit 



REVIEW. 123 

place for the end of all things to begin ; and I seriously opine 
that on some day these pent-up fires and boiling waters will ex- 
plode and send the mountain peaks flying in atoms down the 
abyss. Before this comes to pass, however, a catastrophe is 
more likely to befall Foss, his passengers and his horses. The 
great object of this celebrated expert seemed to be to show us 
how near he could touch upon total destruction and yet avoid it. 
" Hi ! Bummer, mind ! " he cried to the nigh leader of his six- 
in-hand as we were whirled round a point of rocks and de- 
scended a grade apparently of forty-five degrees. 

Bummer's track was within an inch of the edge, and there 
was a chasm of hundreds of feet below. If his foot had slipped 
one inch he would have taken horses, wagon, passengers and 
driver with him into eternity. In this way we made a run of six 
miles down the mountain in twenty-four minutes, and I came to 
the conclusion that in point of comparative comfort, I have ex- 
perienced more of it in sending down a royal yard in a gale of 
wind than in driving with Mr. Foss. 

A modern Athenian had been " mapping out " for his friend 
in London the tour of the United States. "You have men- 
tioned," said the Englishman, " many objects worthy of attention 
in New York, Philadelphia, Washington and other towns, but 
you have said nothing of your own renowned and beautiful city." 
"Your appreciative remark," returned the Bostonian, "is suffi- 
cient evidence that it was needless for me to refer to a city so 
universally known." 

While the most agreeable routes through the State of Cali- 
fornia have been described, San Francisco has scarcely been 
mentioned. She has no history like the Puritan capital, of 
two hundred and fifty years, no venerable shades of Harvard, 
no old families who trace their lineage back to a convenient 



124 "^^^ ROUND TRIP. 

epoch within the range of three centuries; for her aristocracy is 
not developed, though its bud has the promise of a full-blown 
flower. But while the queen of the Atlantic has her rivals, who 
perhaps vainly attempt to surpass her, the empress of the Pacific 
has none. 

Commerce settled upon the noble bay of San Francisco, 
and laughs at the puny efforts of all the little sea-coast-towns 
from San Diego to the north to divide the spoils. The history 
of the city is one of thirty years — scarcely that — for her unkempt 
infancy of three years should not enter into the account. The 
" old forty-niners " consider themselves her founders, and when 
they look back through a vista of little more than a quarter of a 
century, and turn their gaze upon themselves and their surround- 
ings, they may well wonder if all is reality, and if some part of 
their eventful lives has not been spent in Rip Van Winkle sleep. 

With its three hundred thousand inhabitants, among them 
scores of men exceeding in wealth the like number in the world, 
its streets lined with warehouses, banks, churches, shops and 
princely dwellings, its squares set apart for colleges and institu- 
tions of public charity, its hotels unrivalled in extent and mag- 
nificence, and, above all, its commanding situation, and climate 
sans peiir d saris repfoche for at least ten months of the year, San 
Francisco, though yet in its youth, is the ruler of the Pacific 
coast, and is fast becoming the commercial monarch to whom 
the islands of the sea, Japan, China and New Zealand will pay 
their abundant and willing tribute. 

Every observant traveller discovers this at a glance, and it 
needs not to be told. One learns it all in a day, but it took 
the weeks that we so pleasantly passed to obtain a correct 
idea of the natural beauties and the agricultural resources 
of the State. It would be an ungracious task to criticise certain 



REVIEW. 125 

elements of society differing in many respects from the eastern 
ideal. Praise might be regarded as fulsome, and dissent as 
querulous. A regular standard of good breeding is scarcely to 
be expected of a society recently in a chaotic condition, and now 
hastily forming out of a mosaic of mankind which first requires 
cementing before it can receive its polish. This in due time will 
gloss over all its irregularities. 



126 THE ROUND TRIP. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

" The Chinese Problem." 

The great social question agitating San Francisco, and to a 
certain extent the State of California, is, *' Shall the Chinese go ? " 
Their presence is objected to because they teach immorality and 
because they " take the bread out of the mouths " of white la- 
borers. 

Now the danger of immoral teaching from a class who keep 
their immorality, which is exaggerated to the last degree, chiefly 
pent up in their own quarter of the city, is very sligbt in the way 
of contagion, and the pretence of their " taking bread from 
other people's mouths " is very feeble, so long as white hotel- 
waiters can obtain thirty dollars per month, and chambermaids 
twenty five dollars per month, including the bread for their 
mouths and all the dainties offered to the guests. 

There is no part of the United States where labor of all 
kinds commands higher wages than in California, and none 
where living is less expensive. Food is cheap, and rents 
not exhorbitant, while people, if they choose, may live out of 



" THE CHINESE PROBLEMS 127 

doors, with advantage to health, the greater part of the year. 
The Chhiese confer a positive benefit upon the State in keeping 
labor within reasonable bounds, and thus enabling it to raise and 
export immense crops of grain. It would be well if they should 
occupy all the servile positions in the cities and drive aristo- 
cratic white servants and troublesome " hoodlums " into the 
country, where they can always find employment. 

The worst that can be said of the Mongol is, that he is a 
labor-saving machine, which is very much needed while labor 
rules at its present high price. He may be classed with sewing 
machines, reapers and headers. These are composed of needles, 
springs and iron teeth, whereas he is a thing of bone and muscle. 
They are the offspring of art ; he is the offspring of nature. 
Voila tout. The advantages of employing either kind of 
machinery are equal, and the objections against the one are as 
forcible as they are against the other. 

Our sympathies were certainly with the Chinese when we 
were told at a large wheat ranche, in reply to the question why 
none of them were employed : " We dare not do it. If we did, 
our crops and buildings would be burned, as for the same cause 
they were burned at Chico." 

Last summer I met a sociably-disposed gentleman on the 
boat running from Vallejo to San Francisco. We drifted on to 
the Chinese question, upon which he appeared to be thoroughly 
informed. He was decidedly in favor of importing more 
Chinese, instead of limiting the immigration. He said that as 
house servants they were invaluable. He was confident that 
without their competition the ^^ waiters and chambermaids 
would demand such wages that families in moderate circum- 
stances would be compelled to do all their own work. He 
thought that instead of interfering with American mechanics 



128 THE ROUND TRIP. 

they were a positive advantage to the home industry of Cali- 
fornia. 

He gave a forcible illustration of this. A large boot and 
shoe factory in Sacramento was competing favorably with the 
eastern market and lessening the demand from that quarter. 
One hundred and fifty white men and fifty Chinamen were 
employed in the establishment. About that time Kearney came 
to Sacramento and said that " those Chinese must go." They 
went accordingly, and the result was that white men not being 
able to do the work for which they were appointed, the whole 
concern was run at a loss and finally broken up, so that the hun- 
dred and fifty white men were thrown out of employment by their 
own act. This was only one of many cases in point. 

If I had not been convinced already that the Chinese are 
profitable to California as railroad builders and fruit-growers 
this intelligent reasoner would have satisfied me. 

On parting at the wharf we exchanged cards, and I found 
that he was the editor of the — well, I will not " go back " on the 
profession — but he was the editor of a newspaper having as 
wide a circulation as any other in the State. " May I use your 
name in my correspondence ? " I asked. 

" Good heavens, no !" he exclaimed, "this is only private 
talk ; I don't utter such sentiments in my newspaper ! " I found 
that he did not, for in all California there was not a more violent 
anti-Chinese newspaper than the ! 

The senseless nature of the excitement against the Chinese 
should be at once apparent when we reflect that their number is 
absolutely decreasing in a considerable ratio, while that of the 
white population is increasing so fast that the next census is 
relied upon to give California 900,000 inhabitants. 

At the close of 1876 there were in the United States alto- 



« THE CHINESE PROBLEM:' j2q 

gether 104,963 Chinese. They have since decreased 7,900, 
leaving 97,063, of whom there are computed to be in California 
and Oregon 62,500, and in San Francisco and its neighborhood 
25,450. What a fearful " invasion of pauper labor " is this ! 

Now let us tabulate this invading army from data given by 
"the Chinese themselves which correspond with the acknowledged 
statistics of our own authorities : — 

Cigar-makers 2,500 

Clothing manufacturers 2,000 

Vegetable pedlers 500 

Laundrymen 1,500 

Shoemakers 1,800 

Watch manufacturers 150 

Woollen mills 350 

Fishermen 800 

Jute factories; 600 

Various small manufactures 1,500 

Domestic servants 6,000 

Doctors, druggists and teachers 300 

Merchants, clerks and porters 2,800 

All other occupations 2,150 

No legitimate regular calling . TTT.. 1,200 

Children of school age {denied admission to our schools) i)309 

25,450 

There are twenty-five thousand four hundred and fifty Chinese, 
most of whom it is admitted are mere sojourners without fam- 
ilies, who are expected to capture a city of three hundred thousand 
people, to reduce its laborers to starvation and to demoralize 
them utterly ! And this list of their occupations is a proof of 
their " enforced pauper labor ! " 

We have no statistics of the employment of the other 37,050 
Chinese who are about to subjugate a million people in Califor- 
nia and Oregon, or of the remaining 34,563 who are scattered 
like incendiary fire-brands among the 45,000,000 people of the 

9 



I30 THE ROUND TRIP. 

United States. But it is fair to take the same divisions that 
exist in San Francisco. 

This table disposes of the question of pauper labor ; and 
its enforcement may be set at rest by a declaration of six 
respectable Chinese merchants: — 

" We solemnly declare that we, the Six Chinese Companies, 
are purely benevolent societies. We never, singly or collec- 
tively, as individuals or companies, ever brought one of our 
countrymen to this free country, under or by any contract or 
agreement, made anywhere, as a servant or laborer. We never 
have before heard that our people desiring to come here sold 
their relatives to obtain the means to come. We have never 
yet let, hired, or contracted one of our people out to labor ; 
neither have we ever exercised the slightest control or restraint 
over our people after they came here, nor claimed, or demanded, 
or received one dollar of their earnings. We have never acted, 
directly or indirectly, as the agent or agents of any one of our 
people who advanced the means for one of our people to come 
ihere. 

" Lin Chuck Fong, 
" Lee Ge Qung, 
" Wing Puey Yung, 
" Wong Sue Fp©, 
** Lou Kung Chai, 
" Chin Kung Chen, 
" Presidents of Six Companies. 
" San Francisco, February 12, 1879." 



" THE CHINESE PROBLEMP 131 

Here is a statement compiled from Municipal Reports of 
City and County of San Francisco : — 

HOSPITAL. 
City and Cottnty of San Francisco for the year ending June y^th, 1878. 

Whole number admitted , 3067 

Nations of the United States 913 

" Ireland 948 

'* China O 

" all other countries 1 140 

ALMS HOUSE. 

City and County of San Francisco for the year ending June Tfltk, 1878. 

Whole number admitted 472 

Nations of the United States 138 

" Ireland 175 

" China I 

" all other nations 158 

CHIEF OF POLICE. 

City and County of San Francisco for the year ending June 2,0th, 1878. 

Number of arrests for drunkenness 6127 

" Chinese. o 

While there can be no question that Kearneyism and news- 
paper enterprise for political purposes are at the bottom of all 
the anti-Chinese agitation, there is one element in it that has 
not been considered. It is a humiliating confession, but there 
is a dread among business men that the Chinese merchants, by 
their astuteness and quick-witted comprehension of commerce, 
will take the profits out of their pockets, as they are accused of 
takinor the bread out of the mouths of^^«iife' laborers. 



While figures go far to prove that the Chinese are not 
burdensome upon the community, as they pay their full quota 
of taxation, they show, moreover, that they are competing for 
trans-pacific commerce. 



132 



THE ROUND TRIP. 



In 1878 the Chinese paid : — 

Internal Revenue taxes in San Francisco alone. $550,000 

Poll taxes in the State 180,000 

Licenses in the State 41,000 

Property taxes 220,000 

Duties paid on imports 1,768,000 

i^2,7 59,000 

In the same year they exported merchandise valued at 
^3,109,320, of which there were 209,000 barrels of flour. 

In short, nine-tenths of all the exports to China were made 
by Chinese Coolies ! 

The banking and insurance systems are now thoroughly 
comprehended by the Chinese. They are establishing their 
own banks and insurance offices, and they have in serious con- 
templation the project of a steamship line across the Pacific 
under their own flag. 

This enterprise is perfectly feasible, China, in one respect 
at least, is more free than the United States. The Chinese may 
buy their steamships where they please. With ships at a greatly 
reduced cost, victualled and manned at half the expense, their 
only necessity at first being that a few European officers should 
be employed, these hated foreigners may sweep our commerce 
from the Pacific seas, and the Stars and Stripes, even now rarely 
seen upon those waters, may totally disappear! 

This is another reason why " the Chinese must go." They 
must go because they are too willing servants, and because they 
may become too powerful masters.//^/ l i"^*! ( i S 'I 

For the prospective gain of iflib vOtef, demagogues on both 
sides, backed up by their partisan adherents, are willing to 
destroy the tools with which the prosperity of their State was 
constructed. 



" THE CHINESE PROBLEM:' 133 

Their railroads have been built by Chinese. They have 
drained swamps that by their labor only could have been 
reclaimed, and made the most productive land, giving employ- 
ment to thousands of white men in agriculture. 

They supply the markets with fruit and vegetables, which 
otherwise could not be produced in such abundance. They are 
the best workers in the vineyards, and they perform menial 
services that no European would undertake. 

It is not true that they invariably work for very low wages. 
As soon as they work as intelligently as white men, they 
often obtain equal rates with them. It cannot be otherwise. 
Employers understand their value, as quiet, orderly, industrious 
temperate men, and therefore prefer them at the same price. 

That they live in crowded dens in San Francisco, not so 
crowded, however, as the tenement dens of New York, is unde- 
niable, and it is a disgrace to the municipal government which 
permits it. So far from being personally uncleanly, they are 
remarkable for the neatness of their dress and the daily ablution 
of their persons. 

Like the Irish, they send money home to their relatives, 
and are to be commended for it. The gold and silver of Cali- 
fornia is a product of its soil as much as wheat and wine, and 
its export is of no greater injury to the country than the export 
of cereals. When they go home they carry with them for dis- 
semination the knowledge they have acquired, some of which it 
would be better for them to forget. 

We send missionaries back with them in the same ships, to 
tell their countrymen of American civilization, and of the religion 
of peace and good will to all mankind, which strangely disagrees 
with their experience on our inhospitable shores. 

Can we remedy all this ? Can we convince California dem- 



134 THE ROUND TRIP. 

ocrats and republicans that they have been laboring under a 
serious mistake in their estimate of Chinese character and of 
their value to them as immigrants ? 

Who doubts the ability of Congress to accomplish this desir- 
able end ? To its everlasting disgrace, in obedience to the 
insensate clamor of politicians — but for the President's veto 
power — it would have humiliated our nation in the eyes of the 
Christian and the heathen world by the violation of a solemn 
treaty. 

Now let this be partially atoned, by justice to the Chinese. 

Because they are yellow, not white — yellow, not black, let 
our treatment of them no longer give the lie to our Declara- 
tion of Independence and to our profession of religion. Let us 
prove our belief that all men are free and equal, and that God 
" hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all 
the face of the earth." 

Let us give the Chinese the boon of suffrage. Then, while 
they are with us aiding us to develop our industries, they will 
not be treated as pariahs and beasts of burden. The only danger 
will be that they may be too much flattered and caressed. And 
when they return to their home, we may send missionaries with 
them with better grace, for they can tell the Chinese that the 
Christian religion is practised by ourselves. 



ALONG THE COAST TO OREGON, ETC. 135 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Along the Coast to Oregon — Discovery of the Colum- 
bia River — The Bar — Industries of Oregon — Salmon 
Fishery. 

The Californian measures every thing by the scale of his 
own aspirations. A million of dollars for him is not a large 
fortune. Beets and turnips of eastern immensity are vegetables 
of a fair size at his agricultural exhibitions, farms of ten thou- 
sand acres are modest properties, a tree equal to a New Eng- 
land forest clamped together is not an extraordinary bit of tim- 
ber, and when he talks of a run among the Sierras or the ascent 
of Mount Shasta he is merely "going to the hills." As to ex- 
cursions, he looks upon twenty or thirty miles up and down the 
bay or a trip along the coast of one or two hundred miles to 
Santa Cruz and other little outposts as afternoon relaxations 
from business. A voyage to Japan or China to him is not much 
in excess of a New Yorker's idea of a visit to Fire Island or 
Long Branch. As California can be compared to no other 
country, so a Californian can be compared to no other man, in 
his estimate of measures, weights, distances and himself. " You 
ought, by all means," said my friend, " to make a little excursion 



1^6 THE ROUND TRIP. 

to Oregon. Everybody goes there now for an outing. The 
whole 'paseo'" — this is a pleasant little word of the old Span- 
iards — " can be done in ten or fifteen days. It is only about 
twenty-five hundred miles altogether, going and returning. 
There are three lines of steamships. The accommodations are 
excellent, the fare good, and the price reasonable. Go ! " We 
went. 

The George W. Elder, of the regular line, was built by Mr. 
John Roach, of the Delaware, a gentleman protected by our 
government in the monopoly of shipbuilding, which means that 
all Americans are obliged to buy ships upon his terms. This 
theory of protection does not apply to the lives or purses of 
the people, but merely to the emolument of Mr. Roach. In this 
instance, the George IV. Elder, of round bottom and needless 
breadth of beam, not being quite ready to work herself to pieces, 
pitched all the time that she was not rolling, and rolled all the 
time that she was not pitching, and finally, though leisurely, 
landed her passengers in safety. There were one hundred and 
sixty-five in, on, and around the cabin, and another crowd in the 
steerage who were much more comfortable in regard to space. 
We were four days in accomplishing seven hundred and forty 
miles. One hundred and fifty of them were of river navigation, 
during which the hitherto sea-sick wretches were able to stand 
up and make more room for themselves and others. 

Coasting along a bold shore for the first two days, the Cal- 
ifornia characteristics were predominant. The grass of the early 
spring was dry, and the hills, cleared of trees, presented a 
barren appearance. Yet the dry, yellow grass was good food 
for cattle and sheep, while here and there, in some shady 
canon, their owners lived in comfortable ranches upon the 
ir.crease of their flocks and herds. Across the Coast Range, and 



ALONG THE COAST TO OREGON, ETC. 137 

in the interval between it and the distant Sierras, the map tells 
us of vast plains chosen by an ever-increasing population for 
pasturage and farms. As we drew to the north and passed the 
Oregon line, the dull, dry, barren appearance of the coast gave 
place to verdant grass and thickly studded firs and pines. In 
Oregon nature does not divide her rain and sunshine in two 
great halves, as she metes them out in California. Here it rains 
and shines by turns, as smiles and tears alternate on those happy 
faces never distorted by immoderate laughter or drawn down 
by persistent grief. The California farmer is contented in 
one way, and the farmer of Oregon is contented in another. 
The first consoles himself for the long winter rains with the fixed 
assurance that he will have an abundant harvest, reaped at his 
leisure, stacked and thrashed in the fields without fear of storm 
and without need of a barn. Then he counts with certainty 
upon his thirty-five bushels of wheat to the acre. But if the 
winter be dry, what then ? Why he is happy all the same in 
calculating that two dry winters never come in succession. 
When short crops and starving cattle stare him in the face, his 
philosophy is scarcely equal to the emergency. 

On the other hand, the farmer of Oregon counts on a 
smaller crop, but he counts with a greater certainty. There are 
for him no alternating years of abundance and drought, no per- 
petually rainy winters and summers of steady sunshine. Prov- 
idence does not send for him its gifts in large parcels or none, 
but it sifts them more equally over his path. He must build 
barns and sheds as he was accustomed to build them in the 
East, but his store-houses will be filled with plenty. In point of 
prosperous agriculture and grazing, inasmuch as certainty is 
preferable to spasmodic luck, the inducements to settle in 
Oregon are superior to those which California offers. And if 



138 THE ROUND TRIP. 

taste and beauty enter into a man's calculations, as they always 
unconsciously touch his soul, the dark green forests, the mossy 
rocks, the scarcely lighter shade of pastures and meadows, ever 
present to his eye of sense, educate and refine his inward 
nature, and give him and his children a wholesome pleasure 
unknown to those who dwell for half the year in a dust that 
chokes all poetry out of their existence. 

On a beautiful Sunday morning we approached the Heads of 
the Columbia River. Before us lay basking in the sunshine the 
smooth expanse of water which Vancouver in 1792 mistook for 
a bay. It is surprising that, being on a special errand to find 
the traditionary river or strait which in dreams of early nav- 
igators formed the connection between the Pacific and the 
Atlantic, he should have passed the promising inlet with so little 
examination. Equally remarkable it is that Captain Gray, of the 
merchantman Columbia, whose only object was trade and a 
speedy termination of his voyage, should have turned aside and 
made the great discovery. The modest skipper did not seek 
for the fame his name has acquired, but overhauling Van- 
couver, told him where he might find the river. His informa- 
tion treated with contempt. Gray resolved to prove the truth of 
his impressions. Turning back from his route, he again sighted 
the headlands. 

The determination of purpose which overcame his scruples 
may be imagined. His ship was commissioned for no scientific 
purpose. She was not insured against any such attendant risk. 
His business was to sell his cargo, to buy another, and to come 
back to Boston. But the Englishman had ridiculed him, and he 
would not stand it. The dawn of May 1 1, eighty-seven years 
ago, found him again heading for the bar with a fair wind. The 
water was too rough for a boat to take soundings ahead. The 



ALONG THE COAST TO OREGON, ETC. 139 

breakers were combing and dashing far out on the shoals from 
either headland, and in view of the danger before him on this 
unknown shore, the question arose with startling abruptness, 
"Shall I haul off before it is too late, or shall I make the at- 
tempt ? " It was decided in an instant. " Hard a-port your 
helm ; keep her E. N. E." Slowly the Columbia surged ahead, 
and gathering way as the wind filled her sails, she dashed 
onward, rising and falling on the foamy crests. Cool and calm 
sat the " old man " on the foretopsail yard, with an eye on the 
darkest and smoothest water ahead, changing the course as 
these indications were before him. Regularly was " the lead 
kept going " from the chains. Now she shoals from ten fathoms 
to nine, and eight, seven, six, five ! She is coming to the bar. 
Suddenly the measured song, crying, " By — the — he — mark — 
five ! " is followed by the excited leadsman, who has no time to 
sing, with sharp conciseness, "and a quarter three, sir!" 

" Steady as you go ! " calls Captain Gray. 

" Steady ! " repeats the mate. 

" Steady, sir ! " echoes the man at the wheel. A big sea 
heaves the Columbia on its crest ; then she settles in its trough ; 
then rises again, and slides before it. 

" By — the — he — deep — four ! " is now the song from the 
chains j the next cast gives " and a quar-her-ter-five ! " the next 
" By the — he — mark — ten ! " and the good ship is over the bar. 

The long-time fabled great river of the West now found, had 
come down from its still unknown mountains to meet and wel- 
come the daring sailor. With all this there came to him no 
feeling of pride or exultation beyond the simple desire to fall in 
■with Vancouver again and to hail him with " I told you so." 
This he did, and then the Englishman, piloted by the experience 
of Captain Gray, entered the river and claimed it for his sover- 



I40 THE ROUND TRIP. 

eign by the right of discovery ! History has told us how the 
conflicting pretensions of America and England were adjusted, 
how the title of the former was confirmed, and how the appro- 
priate name of Gray's little ship was given to the river. 

The poetry and beauty of the Columbia remain to-day almost 
as fresh as in 1792. True the Indian wigwams have disap- 
peared. "Vast numbers of canoes come out to meet us" no 
more as they met Captain Gray. Instead of these, towns and 
villages are springing up on the river's banks, steamboats are 
ploughing its waters, and wholesale trade in lumber, wheat, wool 
and 'fish has taken the place of a simple exchange of commod- 
ities by barter. All these modern improvements mar the great 
picture of Nature, but they have not yet cut down the boundless 
forests, they can never level the grand mountains or turn the 
channel of the mighty stream that rolls through their gorges to 
the sea. 

An early superstition, more inexcusable in our day than that 
in ancient times hanging over the Cyclades and fearful Scylla 
and Charybdis, is still attached to the bar of Columbia River. 
It would not have been surprising if Captain Gray had hesitated 
to cross it in 1792 when the soundings were totally unknown, or 
if the navigators who immediately succeeded him had ap- 
proached the breakers first encountered by the Columbia with 
nervous apprehension. But nearly a century has elapsed, the 
river has been surveyed by officers of the British and Amer- 
ican navies, accurate charts have been published, experienced 
pilots cruise in the offing, steam-tugs are always to be found, 
and yet great fears are entertained by those who approach the 
coast for the first time, and underwriters actually demand an 
extra premium on vessels bound to ports in Oregon at any season 
of the year. In the course of time this unfounded prejudice will 



ALONG THE COAST TO OREGON, ETC. 141 

be overcome, but while it lasts it certainly is a most needless 
drawback to the prosperity of Oregon and Washington Territory. 

On entering and leaving the river, Captain Bolles kindly gave 
me the opportunity of examining his charts and observing the 
courses. This, with what I have been told by pilots and have 
gained from other authorities, establishes the conclusion that, 
with equal care and prudence, the bar of the Columbia for the 
greater part of the year is not more dangerous than that at 
Sandy Hook. Even in comparatively early experience, from 
1 86 1 to 1869, when the north-west coast was by no means so 
accurately surveyed as at present, there was this authentic 
record of disaster : " In eight years there were one hundred and 
ninety-eight accidents, one hundred and ten of which happened 
to small coasting vessels, and of these only three occurred on 
the bar of the Columbia. The records of the Pilot Commis- 
sion show that only nine vessels have been wrecked at or near 
the bar in the last twenty-five years. Nine disasters in about 
twelve thousand five hundred crossings give a loss of only seven 
one-hundredths of one per centum." 

Captain Maginn, formerly a New York Pilot Commissioner, 
who ought to be able to make just comparisons, says : — 

"There is deep water on the bar, it having four and one-half 
fathoms without the addition of the tide, while New York har- 
bor has on the bar but four fathoms, without the addition of the 
tide, which is six feet. The bar in the Columbia is about half a 
mile across, while that of New York is three-quarters. The 
channel of the bar at the mouth of the Columbia is about 
6,000 feet, and shoals gradually, while the channel of the bar at 
Sandy Hook is about 600 feet and shoals rapidly ; the channel 
across the bar is straight at the Columbia ; that at New York is 
crooked." 



142 THE ROUND TRIP. 

On this authority it is safe to conckide that at high water 
vessels drawing twenty-two feet may cross the bar, and those 
drawing nineteen feet may do so at half-tide. At low water and 
in storms, when the breakers are making the rise and fall of the 
sea unusually great, it is of course prudent to haul ofif and await 
a more favorable opportunity ; and it must be allowed that such 
occasions are not unfrequent in the winter. 

This exaggerated dread of g bugbear has greatly retarded 
the direct trade of Oregon with the outside world, and placed 
her at the disadvantage of double shipments, making her a mere 
tributary to California. The Oregon and Washington farmers, 
upon the average, can produce greater crops of wheat than 
their neighbor can depend upon in all years, some of which are 
cursed with drought, but hitherto they have been able to ob- 
tain equal prices for their produce. They have had various 
impediments in the way of success. In the first place, although 
they are mostly settled in valleys watered by large rivers, these 
are blocked by natural obstacles, some of which cannot be over- 
come by canals. Then the railroad S3'Stem is not far advanced, 
notwithstanding that it is measurably so for a sparsely inhabited 
country. 

For most of the year, with occasional but very expensive 
portages, the Columbia River is navigable two hundred and fifty 
miles from its mouth, and the Snake one hundred and fifty miles 
from its junction with it in Eastern Oregon. The Willamette, 
one of the chief affluents of the Columbia, is for nearly all the 
year navigable for more than one hundred miles. Now, Walla 
Walla, the best producing county of the State, cannot send its 
wheat to San Francisco at a cost of less than sixty cents per 
bushel, a surrender of one-half its value. Near and distant 
districts will average that ratio. This estimate holds good 



ALOXG THE COAST TO OREGON, ETC. 143 

regarding wool, hides, and all other products. Even without 
counting the necessary expense of transportation from the fields 
to the principal shipping ports, the loss to the fanners in ocean 
freight to San Francisco is from five to seven hundred thousand 
dollars ever\' year. The great requirements of Oregon and 
Washington Territory are, therefore, internal facilities of carriage 
and a direct export trade. The first must await time and capi- 
tal, the last can be brought about by ordinary intelligence and 
enterprise. Already the advantages are beginning to be com- 
prehended. 

Seventy-five thousand tons of wheat were last year exported, 
chiefly to Great Britain. This was carried in sixty-nine vessels, 
and it is incidentally worthy of remark that only nine of these 
were under the American flag. The whole crop of wheat for the 
last year was two hundred and fift}^ thousand tons, only about 
one-third of which was directly exported. Beside this there was 
no inconsiderable quantity of barley, oats, fruits, bacon and 
hides, most of these articles having been sent to San Francisco. 

Sheep-farming being a prominent industry, the export and 
coastwise shipment of wool is annually becoming greater. The 
quality is of a high grade, and the quantity last year amounted 
to six million pounds. Not the least important of all is the 
salmon trade, so enormously enlarged of late that it will soon 
be destroyed by reckless fishing unless speedy precautions are 
taken to regulate it. In view of such a result the Legislature of 
Washington Territory has passed a bill not only exacting heavy 
licenses, but prohibiting the use of traps, seines and nets of less 
than eight-and-a-half inch meshes. This will prevent the cap- 
ture of young fish, and as it is intended to stock the river yearly 
with spawn the wholesale destruction now going on may be 
averted. It is expected that Oregon will confirm this action. 



1^^ THE ROUND TRIP. 

In 1S77, the thirty-one canneries which we saw distributed 
on both sides of the river packed three hundred and ninety-five 
thousand cases of forty-eight pounds each. We had an opportu- 
nity to see the operations of several establishments. All is sys- 
tematic, from landing the fish to shipping the cases. The sal- 
mon are first chopped into sections, then into pound-pieces, then 
put in tin boxes, soldered, subjected to various degrees of heat 
and to exhaustion of air. The boxes are finally colored, labelled 
and packed. Chinese are chiefly employed in all this indoor 
work, as their labor is not only less expensive but more expert 
than that of white men, who are mostly occupied in catching the 
fish. They have the use of the boats and nets of their employ- 
ers and receive thirty-three cents for every fish they bring in. 
Six thousand men are thus engaged. 

It is a curious fact that Columbia River salmon can never be 
taken with the hook. When the British Commission came out 
here to investigate matters during the dispute with the United 
States, it is said that they attached little value to a stream 
"where the blasted fish would not take a fly ! " 

I have touched upon the principal industries of Oregon and 
Washington Territory bordering upon and divided from it by the 
Columbia River, which find a profit from abroad. As to the 
lumber trade having a market at home and in California, indeed 
all along the west coast of America, it is inexhaustible, for these 
regions are forest homes. The mineral wealth of the country, 
yet undeveloped, is incalculable. 



WILL A ME 7 TE VALLEY. 145 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Astoria — Portland — Willamette Valley — Scenery of the 
Columbia — The Dalles — Indian Troubles — Oregon''s Op- 
portunity — Departure. 

Having crossed the bar of the Columbia, before us on the 
Oregon side of the river is the little town of Astoria. City it is, 
like every collection of houses, great or small, in the West. As- 
toria is the first city in the State — the first that was founded, as 
it is the first in approach. It came into life with a struggle, was 
choked in its infancy by the rivalry of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany, and has not yet recovered from the hardships of its youth. 
Now it lives on its history of the past chronicled in the poetiq 
prose of Irving, on its expectations of the future, and on salmon. 

It is supposed to belong to Oregon, but it seems to dread 
going ashore, so it stays out in the harbor, built on piles. The 
streets are all bridges, and the cellars of the houses are watery 
depths. The Astorians say that lumber is cheap, and that plank 
and water are not dusty. They are satisfied with the land they 
see in abundance behind them piled up in the coast range of 
mountains, where they occasionally go ashore to hunt deer and 
grouse. This aquatic tendency is not peculiar to Astoria. 
Every town at which we touched on the river pushes itself into 



146 THE ROUND TRIP. 

the water and has its plank-road streets and drives. Nobody 
knows why, only it is the fashion. 

The steamship discharged a little freight, took on board a 
little more, and then late in the afternoon steamed away for 
Portland. We were to lose the anticipated view of the scenery, 
but the loss was compensated by a brilliant sunset. The refrac- 
tion of the atmosphere magnified the sun to an unusual size, as 
in his full blaze he dropped behind the waves and streamed his 
rays along our path, just lighting us into the channel between 
the hills that began to encircle us with their shadows. Long 
after the bright day had left the lower plains its parting rays 
gilded the snowy summit of St. Helen's, until at last this highest 
peak was shrouded in darkness. 

The morning found us at the wharf in Portland. This com- 
mercial capital of Oregon is one hundred miles from Astoria, 
near the mouth of the Willamette, which pours into tiie Columbia 
and is its largest affluent. The city can be reached by vessels 
drawing sixteen feet, and having been established early, has 
maintained a business pre-eminence scarcely warranted by a situ 
ation much less favorable than that of Astoria. It has its banks, 
great shops, and not a few semi-millionaires, who live in costly if 
not elegant houses, for wood, the universal building material, is 
not susceptible of architectural beauty. This sentiment may be 
treasonable to the shingle palaces not only of Portland but of 
San Francisco, where such structures cost a million of dollars, 
and yet are ugly in proportion to their pretentious magnificence. 
Portland is wood above and wood below, wood where'er we go ; 
and now perhaps we have discovered why it is built over the 
water, on which it has so frequent occasion to call for extinguish- 
ing its fires. Its population is fifteen thousand. 

The California and Oregon Railroad is a projected thorough- 



WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 1 47 

fare, finished at each end, but exceedingly open in the middle. 
It extends from Sacramento north to Redding, and from Port- 
land south to Rbseberg, with a stage coach interval of two hun- 
dred and eighty miles. It is seldom used by travellers to Cali- 
fornia, who prefer the more comfortable steamship route, unless, 
as does not often happen, a day or two are worth gaining at the 
cost of no inconsiderable fatigue and expense. When the in- 
ducements become greater the whole line may be opened, but 
the day is far distant when it can derive a profit from through 
passengers and freight. We made an excursion upon it as far as 
Albany, eighty-one miles from Portland. Its course is along the 
banks of the Willamette River through the valley of the same 
name. Every rule of pronunciation is set at defiance by calling 
this word Will-Hammet, but, as the river belongs to the Orego- 
nians, they are not to be held to account for naming their own 
pets as they please. 

Scarcely do we leave Portland when we dive into a primeval 
forest of fir and pine, giving out balsamic odors and yielding a 
most grateful shade. Flickering rays of sunlight dart through 
the deep shadows, and the sunbeams have full play on the river 
flowing by our side, sparkling between its green borders. Fif- 
teen miles and we reach the falls of the Willamette — great rapids 
that come tumbling down with a roar to the site of the " old city 
of Oregon." 

Old ? Yes ; it was a trading post fifty years ago, ere Oregon 
was a State, or even a territory. It is now a thriving manufac- 
turing village, its flour mills having a merited celebrity. The 
falls are overcome by a short canal, allowing steamboats of a 
light draught to pass upward. 

We now come into a rich farming district, wheat being the 
chief product. Land is worth all prices, according to its im- 



148 THE ROUND TRIP. 

provements and nearness to the railroad or river, most of the 
government sections being taken up. The railroad has many- 
acres still for sale at low rates. Thirty bushels of wheat is an 
average crop, and thus far the harvests have never been inter- 
fered with by drought or insects. Winding along through a well- 
cultivated region, amidst wheatfields and orchards, with pretty 
farm-houses ensconced in pine groves which an unusual eye for 
taste and comfort among new settlers has left undisturbed, we 
come to Salem. 

Salem is neatly laid out with wide and shady streets, has 
three thousand inhabitants, and, as the capital, yearly contains 
the representative wisdom of one hundred and fifty thousand 
people. The State House was pointed out to us. It was within 
its walls that the Cronin certificate was signed, and, therefore, 
although the iDolitical scheme was unsuccessful, the State House 
of Oregon will be as memorable in history as those of Louisiana 
and Florida, where the machinery of President-making was bet- 
ter oiled and made to run more smoothly. 

For thirty miles we traversed a country similar to that 
already passed, and were assured that it continued along the 
whole line of the road to Roseberg. Then we reached Albany, 
a town not much inferior to Salem. This was the limit of our 
excursion. By no means did we see the whole of the Willamette 
Valley, extending with its connections over a fine agricultural 
country one hundred miles long and fifty miles wide. It is one 
of the most productive tracts of what is called Western Oregon, 
a term comprising that part of the State lying between the sea- 
coast and the Cascade Mountains, running from north to south 
one hundred miles in the interior, from the forty-second to the 
forty-sixth parallel of latitude ; and this is but a small part of 
the State. Eastern Oregon has more than twice its extent, and 



WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 1 49 

its soil has equal capabilities. The whole of the State embraces 
sixty millions of acres, very few of which are not susceptible of 
cultivation. Vast tracts of the mountains are timber lands, and 
still larger districts are ready for cattle, sheep-raising and farm- 
ing purposes. In fact, there is no State of the Union where 
there is less waste land in proportion to the total area. 

With all these advantages added to a convenient geograph- 
ical position and a salubrious climate, the present and future 
population of Oregon ought to be prosperous and happy. 

Beyond its commercial value, its trade and fisheries, its sites 
for cities, and its valleys producing wheat and fruit, the Colum- 
bia is beautiful. As Niagara is never considered with calcula- 
tions of its mill-driving water-power, and the Rhine is not esti- 
mated according to its importance as a highway for transporta- 
tion, so the great river of the West will ere long be visited by 
tourists, painters and poets for the gratification of a higher taste 
than the lumberman, the fisherman or the farmer connects with 
his practical vocation. Unconsciously our people are being 
educated to this standard. 

As the memory of the rich morsels gathered in the universal 
reading of the present age sweetens the daily toil of the laborer, 
so the pictures of nature presented to his eye are ever hanging, 
though unseen, in his workshop, his cabin and his tenement. 
He joins an excursion party for the pleasure he anticipates from 
the " refreshments " and a dance. He takes his children to 
" give them a little fresh air," but he gets more than he bargained 
for in gaining for himself elevation of thought, and for them 
lessons from a teaching higher than that of their school-books. 

As we leave Portland to visit the Dalles we find among our 
fellow-passengers all sorts and conditions of men, women, and 
children too ; some from the town and many who have come 



150 THE ROUND TRIP. 

from San Francisco to enjoy the wonderful scenery of the Co- 
lumbia River. They have taken it home with them as we have 
done, and it will last us all forever. 

The "Wide West" is, as all the river steamboats are, a 
stern-wheel boat adapted to the navigation of shoal water. She 
appeared to be about fifteen hundred tons measurement, an 
immense raft carrying all her cargo on deck, and all her pas- 
sengers above it in an elegant saloon, where there is luxurious 
furniture and well-spread tables, and in roomy staterooms, where 
every appliance for comfort is at hand. Do you remember the 
little steamboats on the Rhine with their narrow limits ? You 
may compare them with the " Wide West," as you may compare 
the Rhine with the Columbia in size and scenery. You may do 
this without detracting one iota from the Rhine of its beauty or 
its history. 

Here we see nothing as yet of vine-clad hills, although our 
descendants may, nor are there any remnants of feudal castles. 
But there are hills that would be called mountains there, and 
mountains so-called even in this land where ordinary moun- 
tains are spoken of as hills. They are on each side and around, 
even above, as they seem ready to topple over from their sum- 
mits thousands of feet high, all covered with grand forests of pine 
and firs from their base to their tops, where the tallest of them 
seem like bushes and shrubs. The castles of the Columbia are 
the masonry of Nature's hand, deftly chiselled by floods and gla- 
ciers, piled up in regular, irregular and fanciful blocks — battlements 
designed by an Almighty architect, and existing from an age ap- 
proaching the eternity of the world's beginning. I do not pro- 
pose to describe the indescribable. You may import it in min- 
iature by photographic piecemeal, but to know any thing of its 
beauty and sublimity it must be seen. 



WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 151 

Turning the point of the Willamette, by which we entered the 
river twelve miles below Portland, we again ascend the Colum- 
bia. Six miles above the junction, on the Washington Territory 
side, lies the military station of Vancouver. The hardships of a 
.soldier's frontier life are lightly estimated as we look upon the 
green lawn charmingly sloping from the base of the moun- 
tains, and dotted with the neat quarters of the officers and bar- 
racks of the troops ; but when we consider their perilous duty 
in Indian warfare, we think them entitled to all the enjoyment 
they can get in so lovely a home. This was an old post of the 
Hudson's Bay Company, and in early days was the scene of such 
dangerous and romantic adventures as are now pushed far be- 
yond its limits. 

As we wind through the tortuous channel, occasionally catch' 
ing glimpses of Mount Hood, eighty miles away, crowned with 
perpetual snow, eleven thousand feet in the air, we come to the 
" Gorge of the Columbia." For more than fifty miles we pass 
through and among the mountains of the " Cascade range." 
The river at its mouth, six miles wide, pinches into a deep and 
narrow channel as it cuts through perpendicular cliffs with 
smooth, straight sides, three thousand feet high, where some- 
times the cataracts, beginning with a pouring stream at the top, 
reach the base in a scattering spray. 

Passing up forty-five miles from Vancouver we come to the 
Lower Cascades, where the rapids are so impetuous that naviga- 
tion is interrupted. Here the steamboat discharges her passen- 
gers, to be transferred to a railroad six miles long, cut through 
the rocky banks of the river. Reaching the end of the portage 
we take passage in another steamboat of equal size and similar 
construction, called the " Mountain Queen," and are carried by 
her to the portage of the Dalles, sixty miles beyond. There is 

30 



1^2 THE ROUND TRIP. 

again a railroad transportation of fifteen miles, and navigation 
is resumed by another steamboat, which goes one hundred and 
twenty miles further to Wallula, and if the state of the water 
allows, many miles above, far into the territory of Idaho, across 
the limits of Oregon. 

We reached the Dalles in the afternoon, when, by the courtesy 
of General Sprague, the superintendent of the line, who accom- 
panied us, a special train was provided, by which we had an 
opportunity to see the rapids and to return to the Mountain 
Queen at night. "Dalles" is an Indian word, signifying a deep 
narrow, racing, roaring, boiling, swirling, seething, leaping rush 
of waters. It must be a more expressive word than is afforded 
by our language, and it is wisely retained. 

We followed the torrent up the fifteen miles of its course. 
Sometimes it became smooth and wide for an instant, then, 
darted down in its mad career through the lava-beds, impatient 
of restraint. In one spot the great Columbia is narrowed to a 
channel only ninety-five feet wide, and of a depth which the rapidity 
of the current has never permitted to be sounded. This was the 
limit of our voyage. Beyond, the scenery is not so interesting, 
the mountains being less densely wooded above the Cascades, 
and the river coming quietly down to the rapids and gorges 
where it begins its wild activity. 

A few days more, had they been at our disposal, might have 
been profitably passed in visiting Walla-Walla and the other 
farming regions on the upper Columbia and Snake rivers. It 
would not have been prudent, however, just then to penetrate 
the country so far that a return might be uncertain. The Indian 
depredations had driven many of the frontiersmen to seek 
safety in the settlements, and some of them were so thoroughly 



WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 1^3 

scared that they came on board our steamboat at the Dalles and 
went with us to Portland. 

In many cases they had left their crops already ripened, to 
be destroyed by the Indians, or to perish for want of gathering. 
The distress and loss to these poor settlers cannot be estimated 
by people in the East or by the paternal Government at Wash- 
ington. It might be, if every member of Congress owned a 
tract of land in the neighborhood of the Indian reservations. 
In that case we should hear less of the reduction of the army, 
and some means would assuredly be devised to prevent the re- 
currence of these unending border troubles. 

This is by no means my first acquaintance with the frontier 
or with its dangers. Here, as elsewhere, we see the effect of 
cause — the cause, mismanagement, and the effect, inevitable dis- 
aster. Mismanagement is notorious in a system that encourages 
it, and to this the uprisings of the savages are to be attributed 
rather than to their inherent disposition. The Government and 
the settlers are equally to be blamed for what has happened : 
the former, for its small appropriations, made smaller still by 
Indian agencies ; and the latter, for encroaching upon the 
reservations. 

Our little army is employed in punishing the Indians for the 
crimes these provocations have led them to commit. This 
condition of things will never cease unless with their extermina- 
tion, till Indian agencies are abolished, and the army, now used 
to chastise the savages, driven by their injuries to raiding, shall 
have the jurisdiction which will render its present occupation 
needless. This authority should be still further extended. It 
should reach white men as well as Indians, and should punish 
with equal severity violence on either side. The true policy is 
to place every reservation, and a large area of territory around 



1^4 THE ROUND TRIP. 

it, under absolute military control. With a sufficient force, 
probably no greater than we have at present, order would be 
preserved. These are the convictions of the most intelligent 
persons in the border settlements. 

The principal Indian tribes in Oregon, Idaho, and Washing- 
ton Territory are the Spokanes, including the Pend d'Oreil- 
les and Coeurs D'Alenes, this tribe, under the leadership of 
Chief Moses, being the most formidable in numbers of any in the 
North-west, having a fighting force estimated at two thousand 
warriors ; the Nez-Perces, on the Nez-Perces reservation at Fort 
Lapwai, Idaho Territory, the tribe, which under Chief Joseph, 
created the Indian disturbance of 1877, and the Umatillas, on 
the Umatilla reservation, in Umatilla County, Oregon, forty 
miles inland from Umatilla, on the Columbia River, who number 
about one hundred and fifty warriors. Umapine and Black 
Hawk, of this tribe, led the party who attacked and killed Egan, 
the Piute chief, during the recent fight in the Blue Mountains 
near their reservation. In this part of the country, also, may 
be included those on the Columbia River, who are non-treaty 
Indians, gaining their subsistence by hunting and fishing. Their 
numbers are variously estimated at from two hundred to three 
hundred. The Piutes belong on the Malheur reservation in 
south-eastern Oregon. The Bannocks are placed on the Fort 
Hall reservation, in south-eastern Idaho. 

The fighting force of the Bannocks and Piutes, who combined 
in the raid of the last year, is estimated at four hundred. The 
Bannocks and Piutes, also the Utes and Snakes, are all branches 
of the old Shoshone tribe. The total fighting force of the com- 
bined Indian tribes of the north-western States and Territories, by 
a late estimate, is placed at sixteen thousand. On the Umatilla 
reservation are three hundred thousand acres of the finest wheat 



WILLAMETTE VALLEY. I^g 

lands in eastern Oregon, less than one per cent of it now 
being cultivated by the Indians, while the remainder is used by 
them as a range for their horses, which they raise in great 
numbers, one of the old Umatilla chiefs, Homily, alone owning 
several thousand. This land will produce an average of forty 
bushels of wheat to the acre the first season, and from forty to 
sixty bushels annually thereafter. 

One great cause of Indian insurrection is very evident. As 
in the Black Hills, the gold in the reservation was too great a 
temptation for white men to withstand, so on these rich lands 
all treaties are set at defiance. It is the old, old story of the 
wolf and the lamb. It was this accursed hunger for land, equal- 
ling the hunger for gold, that instigated the Nez-Perces war of 
1877. 

This tribe was particularly inoffensive, more intelligent than 
others, and rapidly adopting the habits of civilized life. They 
were noted for their strict adherence to the treaty made with 
them many years ago. The war began by no fault of theirs ; 
simply by the encroachment of the settlers. It became neces- 
sary to punish them for asserting the rights in which Govern- 
ment failed to protect them. They were conquered, scattered, 
^d removed, and now their enemies have taken up their culti- 
vated lands under pre-emption laws. This is the punishment 
for good behavior and the reward for robbery ! 

The Bannocks, in Idaho, driven to despair, have now joined 
the hostile Indians. Our troubles, instead of being ended, are but 
begun. The Indians are in arms, or ready to take up arms, all 
over the sparsely-settled districts of the western territories. In- 
nocent or guilty, they must be subdued. Soldiers must fight in 
a bad cause. Those agents and traders who have stirred up 
the insurrection will pocket their profits and keep out of harm's 



156 THE ROUND TRIP. 

way. The farmers who have stolen land will suffer justly, but 
others who were guiltless must suffer with them. Harvests will 
perish, and houses will be burned, immigration will be checked, 
and no little money must be expended. 

The worst feature in the Indian's warfare is his vengeance 
upon the innocent for the deeds of the guilty. Now the Gov- 
ernor of Oregon proposes to adopt the same policy. In his 
special letter to the sheriff of Umatilla County, dated July 18, 
187S, he says : " It is not necessary, in my judgment, that any 
of the Indians taken should have been personally present at any 
particular murder, in order to make them amenable to the law. 
Their depredations in Umatilla County may be regarded as 
parts of a general combination or conspiracy for the commission 
of a crime, and all who are in any way connected with it may be 
regarded as principals." In other words, " Shoot an Indian 
because he is an Indian wherever you may find him." 

Oregon wants peace, but she might get it in a different way. 
She should appeal to the general Government to be just, rather 
than to her people to be vindictive. When peace is finally re- 
stored, a great future of prosperity will open before her. The 
district where the Indian war has raged is one of the richest 
within her borders. She has already begun to connect it b^ 
railroad with Puget Sound, where the security of the harbors of 
Seattle, Tacomah, Port Townsend, Olympia, Stillicom, and Bel- 
lingham Bay, and their plentiful depth of water, will give her 
a thriving commerce, and enable her to reign with California as 
joint queen of the Pacific. 

Steaming down the Columbia, on our way to San Francisco, 
as strangers who, having passed through the long galleries of the 
Louvre, are charmed with new pictures on their return, so we 
see upon either side of the river picturesque rocks, mountains, 



WILLAMETTE VALLEY. I^y 

valleys and lawns on which the changing sunlight has thrown 
reversed shadows, and made them new objects of delight. 

Again we cross the bar, and imagine the old Columbia 
steadily pursuing her way out of the channel she had surveyed, 
and the proud satisfaction of Captain Gray in having discovered 
the noble river that has made the name of his ship immortal. 



158 THE ROUND TRIP. 



CHAPTER XX. 

From California Eastwards — The Mines and Gardens op 
Grass Valley — Lake Tahoe, Carson and Virginia City 
— The Sinks of the Humboldt — The Great American 
Desert — Arrival at Salt Lake Citt. 

The westward-bound traveller too often sees but one point 
for which he goes as fast as steam can propel him — San Fran- 
cisco, He might with advantage read the beautiful poem of 
Whittier where he describes the search for the waterfall, unsuc- 
cessful in its end, but along such a path of beauty that the water- 
fall itself is forgotten. When the old familiar lions, the city and 
its suburbs, the Geysers and the Yo-Semite have been seen, he 
turns his steps homeward with equal alacrity, traversing the 
backbone of the continent unmindful of its vertebrae. These 
spreading branches are almost as important as the great trunk 
of railroad itself. Without them it could not exist as a profita- 
ble investment. The trans-continental tour cannot be made with 
the fullest pleasure in the limited time usually allotted to it. 
Neither time nor money should be an object when both knowl- 
edge and pleasure are to be attained. 

There is a little way station, called Colfax, about two hundred 
miles west of San Francisco. Like all the rest, it has its sta- 



FROM CALIFORNIA EASTWARDS. i^g 

tion-house and " saloons." As we arrive at many of them, we 
see the dust-covered Concord coaches drawn up ready to carry 
passengers right and left to the mines, and long trains of wagons 
awaiting their freight. Away they go, without much difference 
in speed, for hundreds of miles, leaving us to wonder concern- 
ing their unknown destinations. Here and there the business of 
the adjoining country has so much developed that side railroads 
have been constructed, making the increase from ten to a hun- 
dred fold. Such are the roads to Denver, to Salt Lake City, the 
narrow gauge to Montana, that leading to Eureka and the broad 
track to Virginia City, Nevada, the home of the bonanzas. We 
had traversed all these, and as for the fourth time we are 
going toward home we are still so little in a hurry that we can- 
not resist the invitation of Mr. Coleman, who was fortunately 
our fellow-passenger, to make an excursion on his narrow-gauge 
road, and visit Grass Valley and Nevada City, and to descend 
into the Idaho Mine. 

Coming from the west everybody crowds upon the platform 
or about the windows to get a view from " Cape Horn " of the 
valley below, where one may step without difficulty twenty-five 
hundred feet and be picked up in fragments. The idea of this 
fate for a train-load of passengers would be something appalling 
but for our faith in the engineering science that constructed the 
road, and confidence in the brakemen who hold our lives in their 
hands. Across the terrible chasm, and piled up around, the 
monarchs of the Sierra, in regal robes of snow and forest-green, 
with crests of rock, look down, we may fancy, with more of ad- 
miration than contempt, upon the little insects who have defied 
their power and march in tortuous lines over their summits, and 
bridge their depths with spiderwebs. Approaching the high 
cape from the east, the view is still more startling of mountains 



l6o THE ROUND TRIP. 

piled on mountains till the distant peaks commingle with the 
skies. This is magnified as we plunge down the narrow gauge 
to the valley of the American River under the very base of Cape 
Horn, where the train we have left is seen slowly creeping 
around its verge. 

On a serpentine track we glide for fifteen miles, diving into 
abysses, spanning rivers, and making steep grades of a hundred 
and twenty feet to the mile, always through a forest of enormous 
pines and firs. Mr. Kidder, the superintendent, tells us of the 
difficulties overcome and the final success of the enterprise. It 
is no stock-jobbing speculation ; but was built by the brothers 
Coleman and a few other gentlemen for their own and the pub- 
lic good. They demand no higher rates of transportation than 
are sufficient to ensure the interest on their investment, with 
which they are content. If all railroad corporations were ac- 
tuated by such motives, gamblers would be poorer and the 
people would be richer. 

The town — I beg its pardon, the city of Grass Valley, where 
we first arrive — has seven thousand inhabitants, and Nevada 
City, three miles beyond, is about one-half its size. They differ 
from ordinary " mining camps," generally devoid of any preten- 
sions to beauty or taste, where instead prevails a perverse desire 
to set these qualities at defiance. To save a hundred yards of 
travel every tree is cut down for timber or fuel, not a spear of 
grass is allowed to grow, and the rudest architecture abounds. 
It is the fixed purpose to make every thing as ugly and uncom- 
fortable as possible, and to proclaim by all the surroundings 
that the supreme, the only object of life is to grub for gold. 
Here, at variance with all the habits of miners, there is refine- 
ment, education, society, pretty homes lost in shrubbery of 
orchards and vines, and the air is perfumed with flowers. 



FROM CALIFORNIA EASTWARDS. i6i 

These lovely little places should eschew their vulgar titles of 
cities, content to be as we shall always remember them, villages 
of this enchanting valley. We had no claim upon the hospitality 
of the people, but their houses were open, their tables spread 
and their carriages freely offered. After driving through the 
shaded streets we were taken to see the workings of some of the 
mines. 

These are of two kinds — gravel and quartz. A gravel mine 
is a magnified exhibition of the first rude process of washing 
out gold in tin pans, by which the early miners gained their 
wealth from the abundant placers, the surface deposits of ore 
swept down by water-courses from the hills. These were soon 
exhausted. Now, gunpowder and the artificial apparatus of 
hydraulic hose are brought to bear upon the gravel hills. They 
are first undermined, and then blasts, frequently of eight or ten 
tons at a time, are exploded, pulverizing solid hills to be played 
upon by streams of water with a force attained by descending 
pressure. The dust washed by processes far in advance of the 
original hand-pans, results in vastly greater abundance of gold. 
In this way the " Milton Company " alone obtained the value 
of $308,000 this last year. About one-half the mines of the 
Grass Valley and Nevada districts, as well as at Bloomfield and 
other places on stage routes from the railroad, are of this de- 
scription. The quartz mines are of more uncertain value, but 
many of them are even more productive. We had the opportu- 
nity to examine only one, the " Idaho," the richest of all. It 
belongs chiefly to the Messrs. Coleman, who own the majority 
of its thirty-one thousand shares, which have paid already one 
hundred and eight dividends of seven dollars and fifty cents 
each per month, and promise good results for a long time to 
come. Into its depths we descended eleven hundred feet, and 



1 62 THE ROUND TRIP. 

then far below the busy world on the earth's surface, wandered 
about in tunnels and drifts, lighted by tallow candles, meeting 
troops of begrimed miners and hearing the explosions of giant 
powder echoing through the vast catacombs, astonished at the 
ingenuity and perseverance of men who seem willing to pene- 
trate to the very centre of the globe, and to explode this great 
terrestrial ball itself for the sake of the glittering dust it con- 
tains. In gravel and quartz mining alike, gunpowder is the 
prime agent of development, and we sometimes wonder how the 
gold and silver of antiquity was produced in such quantities 
without its use. Now, it is indispensable except in simple placer 
workings. The gravel loosened by its force, as described, is 
washed by hydraulic pressure, or the hard quartz is pulverized 
by steam operating on powerful stamps. The result of both 
processes is the fine dust from which the pure gold is extracted 
by the amalgamation of quicksilver. We were pleased and in- 
structed by what was seen in the mines, but our more cheerful 
remembrance of Grass Valley is of its romantic approach, its 
groves, gardens, and its hospitable people. 

Returning to the Central Pacific road at Colfax, we ascend 
eight thousand feet through rocky defiles and around the hang- 
ing precipice of the famous Cape Horn, whence we take a last 
view of the beautiful, exchanging it for the grand and the pic- 
turesque. Hour by hour the grass exchanges its verdure for 
faded russet, until the sage-brush usurps its place. The garden 
trees are succeeded by the live-oaks, and these in turn by the 
scrubby cedars. The cedars, too, after a while give up the battle 
for existence, and all is bleak and barren rock excepting where 
on either hand the peaks are crowned with perpetual snow. 

Reaching at length the highest point, we rapidly descend 
two thousand feet, coming in sixteen hours to Truckee, the first 



FROM CALIFORNIA EASTWARDS. 163 

town of any importance. Its business is derived from its lumber 
trade. The continual cutting of timber, and the carelessness of 
woodmen causing extensive fires among the pine forests, are 
rapidly exhausting a great source of wealth. Already tens of 
thousands of acres are laid bare, and water flumes bring the 
timber many miles from the heights above. 

We leave the train at Truckee with the intention of visiting 
Lake Tahoe and Virginia City. The traveller from the East 
should land at Reno, and reverse the trip by taking the rail- 
road to Virginia, thence crossing to Tahoe, and meeting the 
Central Pacific again at Truckee. An open wagon is the con- 
veyance, much more suitable than a covered coach, as it affords 
such commanding views of scenery that people are not disposed 
to complain of hard seats and a lack of springs. If one has 
time, a previous day may be passed profitably in a drive around 
Donner Lake, a pretty basin, but not comparable to Tahoe in 
extent. 

From Truckee to Tahoe the drive ascends for fifteen miles 
along the banks of a noisy torrent, and for most of the way 
through a dense forest of giant pines. Descending from the last 
divide, a scene of wonderful beauty and grandeur spreads itself 
before and around — the clear, placid lake lying at our feet, cir- 
cled with a vast amphitheatre of mountains, some of them even 
at this season capped with hoary crowns of snow, and all sloping 
from their rocky belts, beyond which no vegetation thrives, 
through one thousand feet of forests of unfading green. The 
great mirror, sixty miles in circumference, reverses its variegated 
frame as the morning sun throws the shadow of the rocky peaks 
far out upon its expanded plane. 

The water is so clear that the bottom may be seen at a depth 
of twenty fathoms, and so light that its touch is almost like that 



J 64 1'HE ROUND TRIP. 

of air. It is nearly impossible for the best swimmers to float 
upon it, and a body that sinks never rises again. Far down, the 
water is cold as ice, and marvellous stories are told of unfortu- 
nates who have fallen overboard in some of its greater depths. 
There, it is said, they can be seen occasionally, when the lake is 
especially calm and clear, lying as they have fallen, and resting 
forever in their watery shrouds. 

There are old legends of Indian love and hate, offering an 
excuse for future poets to invent Hiawathas and Minnehahas, 
and to clothe squalid savages in garbs of imaginary tenderness 
and nobility. 

But more practical notions induced us to seek the com- 
fortable inn, which we assuredly found at "Campbell's Warm 
Springs," on the eastern shore. From this point the best view 
of scenery is to be obtained ; the fishing is excellent, and the 
pleasure of hauling out salmon trout weighing twenty-five pounds 
is equalled only by that of greeting their appearance afterward 
on the table. 

A little steamer called the " Governor Stanford " daily cir- 
cumnavigates the lake, stopping at all ports on the California 
and Nevada shores, for the State lines run through its deep 
waters. A day may be pleasantly passed on her deck. By all 
means take this excursion. 

From Glenbrook, on the Nevada side, a stage runs to 
Carson, on the railroad to Virginia City, distant fifteen miles. 
There is nothing to recommend the dusty mountain road, except- 
ing that the stage is driven by a celebrated break-neck coachman 
named Hank Monk, whose delight is to frighten women and 
children. It is his boast that he " scared Horace Greeley into 
fits." 

We did not avail ourselves of this route, as our landlord 



FROM CALIFORNIA EASTWARDS. igr 

offered us saddle-horses to cross the divide that separates the 
Warm Springs from Carson. The trail is twenty-five miles long, 
and we hoped to accomplish the distance in a few hours. Our 
guide lost his reckoning ; and we wandered for a whole day 
through pathless solitudes, until, late in the afternoon, we fell in 
with a strolling Indian. Instead of taking our scalps, this gentle 
savage piloted us in the right direction, so that we reached 
Carson in the evening. During a ride so tedious and difficult, 
the romantic scenery in abundance, did not so much engage 
attention as the prospect of food and rest. 

The busy little town of Carson derives its chief trade from 
the great mines of Nevada. On the route over the railroad to 
Virginia City on every side were to be seen sluices, crushing- 
mills and smelters. Everybody in this district seemed to be 
living on a diet of mineral ore. That would be their actual sub- 
sistence if they depended upon raising food from the ground. 
There are scarcely fifteen blades of grass in the whole district. 
The railroad, in curves, tunnels and spans, and creeping along 
precipices, claims precedence of all other roads for reckless 
locomotion. A story is told of the death of an engineer who 
leaped down a chasm of a thousand feet at the sight of an ad- 
vancing light, which proved to be the lantern suspended from 
the rear car of his own train. 

After the few hours' twist on this gigantic corkscrew we 
reached Virginia City, whose foundations are over fabulous 
millions of tons of silver and gold. Upon the profits of digging 
these metals and gambling with them its people live. The town 
has been burned since our last visit, and has risen from its 
ashes in somewhat better form, though it still hangs its streets 
and houses loosely on shelving rocks and over deep excava- 
tions. 



1 66 T^HE ROUND TRIP. 

Nearly all the mines are unproductive, that is to say, they 
pay no dividends. " But what's the odds ? " said a Virginian ; 
'.'the stocks go up and down, and they are just as good for spec- 
ulation as if they paid like bonanzas. In fact, they are better, 
for they fluctuate more, and there is a greater margin for profit." 
He did not say anything about the margin for loss. 

We visited two famous bonanzas — the Consolidated Virginia 
and the California, first going through the laboratories and 
works above ground. Some of them were intensely interesting 
and curious — none more so than the weighing office, where the 
scale turned at an infinitesimal part of a grain. The appearance 
of the reeking miners who came up from the depths decided us 
not to accept the invitation to descend to their infernal regions, 
as curiosity in such respects had been already gratified. 

We came away, rattling down the railroad, flying past the 
mills and crushers we had seen in the morning, and leaving 
behind the mountains of gold and silver without a pang of envy 
towards Mr. Fair, who, though worth $20,000,000, passed a part 
of every day far down in the hot and darksome dens of the 
mines, so that he might daily report the indications to his 
partners, in San Francisco. One thing we discovered, and it 
is this, that in speculation all outsiders are fools, and only the 
men who have the " inside track " are wise ; for knowledge is 
power, and ignorance is the victim of chance. On some day, 
sooner or later, the near approach of exhaustion is discovered. 
The partners are duly notified. Perhaps on the same day there 
are " well authenticated " reports of immense deposits " in sight," 
and the stock is parted with for the accommodation of new 
investors, whose property will be found to consist of a big hole 
in the ground. 

This is precisely what has since occurred. 



FROM CALIFORNIA EASTWARDS. 167 

It is fifty-one miles by rail from Virginia City to Reno on 
the Central Pacific. There we resumed the direct route to 
Ogden. 

The road passes through a country often described by the 
guide books, which has many points of good scenery and is here 
and there diversified by large tracts of pasturage. Naturalists 
have studied its peculiarities with an intense curiosity to discover 
the meaning and intention of its phenomenal " sinks," where 
streams and lakes disappear, as they imagine to rise again on 
the Western side of the Sierras and finally to enter the Pacific. 
This theory is supported by the fact that on the Western slope 
of the range, water suddenly gushes out from the ground in such 
quantities that rivers of considerable size start at once in their 
course, but it has not been satisfactorily demonstrated. 

The solution would be of as much practical value as the dis- 
covery of the North Pole, and the investigation would involve 
less hardship and expense, A scientific corps might be detailed 
whose business it should be to throw chips into the Humboldt 
river and watch for their appearance in the Santa Ana. This 
modest suggestion is made with a view of "appropriating" a 
little more money from the Treasury in addition to the amount 
annually expended for purposes of similar utility. 

The stations along the route, mark the locations of small 
towns of apparent insignificance, but many of them are the 
depots of valuable mining districts in the interior with which a 
large trade is carried on, and whence an abundance of ore is 
brought for transportation to San Francisco and the East. Some 
of the most noteworthy of them are Wadsworth, Humboldt, 
Winnemucca, Battle Mountain and Elko. At Terrace, we come 
to the Western limit of what is called " The Great American 
Desert," once undoubtedly an inland sea, now settled down to 



1 68 THE ROUND TRIP. 

the comparative!}' small surface of the Great Salt Lake. We 
get an extended view of its waters at early morning when Mon- 
ument Point is reached. After a few hours the train arrives at 
Ogden, the terminus of the road at its junction with the Union 
Pacific. 

There we take passage for Salt Lake City over the Utah 
Central Railroad for a distance of thirty-eight miles. This road, 
now owned in part by the Union Pacific, to which it is a most 
profitable auxiliary, was buiit under the direction of the late 
Brigham Young. 'J'hat politic leader of the Mormons, finding 
his hopes of isolation destined to be thwarted, turned his mind 
to making his defeat successful in a pecuniary way. He re- 
solved to balance his loss of religious influence by worldly gain, 
and entered heartily into the railroad enterprise, detailing his 
people to build, not only this road, but also many miles of the 
main trunk Line. His success is apparent, for at his death he 
held, at a cost of little or nothing to himself, a large amount of 
the bonds of the Utah Central road which annually pays to its 
stockholders a dividend of twelve per cent, on a capital stock of 
a million and a half of dollars. 



SUNSET AT SALT LAKE. 



169 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Sunset at Salt Lake — The Mormon Jerusalem — The As- 
sembly OF THE Saints — The Late Brigham Young — 
The Close of the Conference — Society in Utah. 

Bierstadt should paint for us this dissolving view of Salt 
Lake City. He should sit at this upper window as the sun is 
going down beyond the Oquirrh Mountains, and, looking east- 
ward upon the Wasatch range, under which this beautiful city is 
nestled among gardens of fruitful trees and shrubbery, he should 
watch the changing colors, catch the passing shades, and follow 
with his artistic eye the long shadows as they creep up the in- 
clined plane that leads to the foot of the mountains, see the 
sombre tints climb higher and higher among the rugged crags, 
until they reach the snow-clad summits and suddenly change 
into sunlight, which rests for an instant, a narrow gilded strip of 
light, and then vanishes, leaving the dark outline against the 
clear sky. He should seize some best moment of this serene 
death of the day, and transfer to his canvas a scene that cannot 
be expressed by words. 

I do not wonder at the poetic faith of these Latter-Day 
Saints; that they should so often exclaim, " Beautiful is Mount 
Zion, the joy of the whole earth," and that they should quote 



lyo THE ROUND TRIP. 

the inspired prophecies of Isaiah as foretelling the glories of 
their kingdom. 

The time of our arrival was the season of the semi-annual 
conference of the church. Salt Lake City is the Mormon Jeru- 
salem. Here is their holy of holies, the site on which their 
great temple is slowly creeping up from its foundations, to be 
the wonder of the world ; here is their enormous Tabernacle ; 
here their beautiful streets, ere long to be paved with silver and 
goldj here dwells their great high priest, and his chief Levites 
make it their home ; here, the Sanhedrim being assembled to 
preside over the semi-annual conference, the tribes of Israel 
have been gathered together. From north and south, from east 
and west, down from the mountains and up from the valleys, 
they have poured into the city, nominally to confer with one 
another about the interests of Zion, but in reality to receive 
counsel and dictation. 

Since the railroads have been constructed, the means of 
access to the town have been increased, and the throng of people 
is greater than ever. But the picturesque effect is diminished. 
The streets and market places are no longer crowded with 
wagons and saddle-beasts. These may still be seen in great 
numbers, and every night in the outskirts of the town the light 
of camp-fires falls upon them. Altogether the scene and occa- 
sion are such that a stranger would not willingly be absent. 

The Tabernacle is the chief attraction. There sat the 
Prophet on his pulpit throne. Around him were his council- 
lors ; ranged below him were the Twelve Apostles, and all 
about him were gathered the Council of Seventy, while presi- 
dents, elders, and bishops of high and low degree were the 
numerous satellites of his train. 

St. Peter's Cathedral is more splendid than this Mormon 



THE ASSEMBLY OF THE SAINTS. 171 

Tabernacle, and the cardinals flaunt in scarlet robes ; but Brig- 
ham Young, in his plain clothes, with his white handkerchief 
always tied about his neck, surrounded by his body-guard of ill- 
dressed, illiterate men, possessed a power and influence over 
his people such as the Pope would not venture to exercise on 
those who call him the Vicegerent of Christ. 

For one, I have never been disposed to reverence, esteem, 
hate, or slander him, but to regar^ his character from a strictly 
impartial jDoint of view. 

When we looked around upon that great assembly of twelve 
thousand persons, representing ten times as many more, whose 
condition in this world his sagacious administration had so 
greatly advanced, and in whom he had inspired such joyful an- 
ticipations of the life to come, I did not wonder at their enthu- 
siastic admiration of him ; and when outside, I saw the small 
Gentile minority, some of whom were scandalized by the revolt- 
ing practice sanctioned by him, while many of them opposed 
him because he was an obstacle to their political influence, I 
was not surprised that he was honestly detested and maliciously 
abused. It must be admitted on all hands that no religious 
fanatic ever succeeded more peacefully in obtaining such an 
ascendancy, and no one of them has, upon the whole, used it 
more wisely and beneficently. 

Not touching upon the objectionable doctrine, he urged the 
people to the completion of the temple, advising every one who 
could afford it to devote half a dollar monthly to the object ; 
and then, taking some of the rules of the " united order " as a 
text, proceeded to enforce their observance on all present. I 
quote a few of these rules : 

"First — We will not take the name of the Deity in vain, nor 
speak lightly of His character, or of sacred things. 



172 THE ROUND TRIP. 

" Second — We will pray with our families, morning and even- 
ing, and also attend to secret prayer. 

" Third — We will observe and keep the word of wisdom ac- 
cording to the meaning and spirit thereof. 

" Fourth — We will treat our families with due kindness and 
affection, and set before them an example worthy of imitation ; 
in our families and intercourse with all persons, we will refrain 
from being contentious or quarrelsome, and we will cease to 
speak evil of each other, and will cultivate a spirit of charity 
towards all. We consider it our duty to seek the interest of 
each other, and the salvation of all mankind. 

" Fifth — We will observe personal cleanliness, and preserve 
ourselves in all chastity. We will also discountenance and 
refrain from all vulgar and obscene language or conduct. 

" Sixth — We will observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy 
in accordance with the * revelations.' " 

All the other rules are equally commendable, and some of 
them, relating to "foolish and extravagant fashions," might well 
be preached in cities where they are less likely to be practised. 

In the assembly of the saints the proportion of old men is 
very noticeable. The seats were dotted with white heads, like 
blossoming trees amidst the green foliage of spring, and, like the 
sturdy weather-stained oaks of the forest, these venerable men 
still hold their own among the young saplings springing into life 
beside them. They were the old pilgrims who traversed the 
desert a quarter of a century ago, and yet bravely hold on to 
life, and enjoy, in the evening of their days, the well-merited 
reward of their toil in the ease and comfort they have earned for 
themselves and their descendants. Many of their aged wives 
are remaining with them, " mothers in Israel," worthily entitled 
to our respectful admiration j haggard, worn out with hard 



THE CLOSE OF THE CONFERENCE. iy3 

labor, and too many of them carrying heavier burdens on their 
hearts than they have borne upon their backs, yet unswerving in 
that faith iu God which overcomes the faithlessness of man, they 
are among the truest heroines on this earth. Hundreds of young 
men were present, dressed in the home-spun clothing made by 
their mothers and sisters, strong and athletic lads, and hundreds, 
perhaps thousands, of girls, whose simplicity of costume, al- 
though still to be admired, is fast giving way to the omnipotence 
of fashion. Last and least, but not least to their mothers, was 
the little infantry of babies, brought here because they cannot be 
left at home, and because to exhibit them is the greatest pride of 
a Mormon mother. A few Gentiles, who came from motives of 
curiosity, were added to the immense crowd on Sunday, the 
closing clay of the conference. 

The benediction was spoken by one of the apostles. The 
great organ pealed forth the first notes of that magnificent, and, 
to these people, appropriate anthem : 

" Daughter of Zion, awake from thy sadness: 
Awake, for thy foes shall oppress thee no more." 

The well-trained choir threw their hearts as well as their voices 
into the music, and when its last notes had died away, twelve 
thousand men, women and children poured out in the streets 
and scattered to their homes. 

It might be supposed that such an influx of people from the 
country at the time of the conference would have brought no 
little money to hotels and the shop-keepers. But this would be 
a mistake. Scarcely a Mormon name was registered at the 
hotels, for the countrymen were quartered upon the faithful in 
the city, or camped in and under their wagons in the streets and 
outskirts of the town. As to money, although there is an 



174 THE ROUND TRIP. 

abundance of food, clothing, and home comforts, it is an ex- 
ceedingly scarce article in Utah. When at Lehi, the bishop 
told us, not many years ago a book was wanted wherein to keep 
the accounts of the settlement. A suitable one was in the hands 
of an Englishman. The price demanded for it was fifty cents, 
and that cash. Eggs, potatoes, chickens, and such common 
currency were obstinately declined, and as ten cents was all the 
ready money that could be collected, Lehi was obliged to wait a 
considerable time for its account-book. Within twelve or fifteen 
years, impecunious applicants for tickets at the theatre have 
procured them at the office in exchange for potatoes, onions 
and cabbages. 

At every meeting of this conference there was a crowded 
audience, who listened as attentively as circumstances would 
permit. These circumstances were babies, of whom there must 
have been always at least a thousand present. There was an 
all-pervading continual infantile wail, and at times, when this 
came in chorus, the speaker was obliged to wait for a lull in the 
storm. Many of the discourses were moderate in character, and 
some of them dwelt with sincere earnestness on the necessity of 
a religious and virtuous life. Frugality, temperance, chastity 
and industry were urged upon the people, and while the open 
attacks of the " enemies of Zion " were deprecated, moderation 
and forbearance were counselled even by that violent declaimer 
John Taylor. When this old apostle did break out with occa- 
sional bitterness, we were willing to excuse him. He was one of 
the earliest converts, and suffered all manner of persecution for 
his devotion to Joseph Smith. He was imprisoned with him at 
Carthage, and when Joseph and his brother Hyrum were dragged 
from the jail by a mob and killed in the street, Taylor at the 
same time was repeatedly shot. He still carries three bullets in 



THE CLOSE OF THE CONFEREIVCE. 175 

his body, and it is when these give him an extra twinge of pain 
that he scowls fiercely upon us Gentiles, and reproaches us as 
if we had actually participated in that murderous affray. 

But most frequently the saints were reminded how the Lord 
in all times of their past tribulations had delivered them from 
the hands of their enemies, and how the same God would do it 
again, however much the heathen might rage, and whatever vain 
things the people might imagine against them. The oft-repeated 
story of their miraculous deliverance from the army of crickets 
was again and again rehearsed. They were told how, in answer 
to their pra5^ers, a great army of gulls overshadowed the land, 
and, swooping down on their tormentors, gorged themselves with 
their prey, and vomiting them when full, returned again to the 
abundant feast, until, when these angels of deliverance took their 
leave, not a cricket was left in the fields. This apparent miracle 
is a matter of history, and as prayer undoubtedly preceded it, 
the prayer and the gulls are naturally connected. So now the 
Gentile ravagers of the land are to be disposed of in some such 
providential manner. It may be safely assumed, that whatever 
course the Government or the people of the United States may 
take in regard to these " Latter-Day Saints," there will be no 
armed resistance by them or withdrawal from the territory. If 
" the Lord God of Israel " does not deliver them from us as he 
did from the crickets, they will patiently submit, like the Jews 
in their Babylonish captivity, and like that ancient people, who 
awaited their return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the 
temple, the Mormons will expect in the fulness of time to be 
gathered together, that they may reign as kings and priests, all 
nations being subdued unto them. 

George A. Smith, an apostle of a milder type than Taylor, 
delivered the last address. 



176 THE ROUND TRIP. 

We have often seen children running into the country stores 
on errands like this : " Ma wants a pound of sugar, a quart of 
molasses, a frying-pan." The articles were furnished and paid 
foi at the established rate in eggs, butter, or some other domes- 
tic production. In this way trade was carried on at conference 
time more extensively. Wagons came in loaded with all de- 
scriptions of farm produce, and when they departed they carried 
to the country those articles of necessity that could not be pro- 
duced or manufactured at home. Thus trade was brisk without 
money. 

You might imagine that one-half of Brigham Young was 
born in Pennsylvania and the other half in Massachusetts, so 
strongly was he impressed with the idea of " protecting home 
industry." Indeed, there are many Gentile shop-keepers to 
whom this doctrine, so constantly enforced by him, is more re- 
pugnant than his practice of polygamy. As home industry is 
carried out, however, it is not a misnomer for taxation in favor 
of monopolists. It is a wise plan, by which simplicity of living 
and frugality are encouraged for the benefit of the people them- 
selves. For this purpose, undoubtedly, no small part of the 
tithing is applied, in the construction of mills and factories, the 
digging of irrigating ditches, and other works of public improve- 
ment. 

The Mormons are drawn mainly from the most ignorant and 
debased populations of Northern Europe. At home they were 
fortunate if, as serfs of the soil, one-tenth of their earnings 
remained their own. Here their tithing is nominally ten per 
centum, although upon an average not more than one-half of it 
is paid in. It results, therefore, that, as they become property- 
holders instead of ill-paid laboring peasants, and are enabled to 
hold on to more than nine-tenths of their earnins:s instead of 



SOCIE TY IN L'TAH. i y ^ 

paying it in toil to their masters, they can well afiford to pay 
tithing to the church as an equivalent for their opportunities 
and instruction. 

The condition of society in Utah may be briefly summed 
up. There are two classes of Mormons — the bigoted and the 
liberal. The first would perpetuate polygamy and drive the Gen- 
tiles out of the territory, were it in their power. Their influence 
is decreasing, while that of the liberals is on the increase. 
Superstition and lust are the allies of the former. Railroads, 
newspapers and fashions are filling the ranks of the latter. 
These are more efficient missionaries than ministers or tracts, 
and more powerful forces than legal enactments. 

There are two classes of Gentiles — the meddlesome, and 
those who attend to their own affairs, exerting a peaceful influ- 
ence upon their neighbors. The first, many of them office- 
holders or office-seekers under the Federal Government, and 
desirous of high positions in the territory, are constantly stirring 
up absurd rumors of Mormon insurrection and outrage, fright- 
ening away immigration of other sects, and thus playing directly 
into the hands of the Mormon priesthood. The last, the most 
estimable and useful class of all, are business men, who are 
developing the resources of the counfr}', by opening the mines, 
building railroads, bringing in capital and men to aid them in 
their enterprises. They are the civilizers of Utah. 

12 



T78 THE ROUND TRIP 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Out into the Country — The Great Salt Lake — Mormon 
AND Gentile Towns — Elections — Ophir Camp — Success- 
ful Business Men. 

Scarcely a traveller on the pleasure trip to California omits 
to spend a day or two at Salt Lake. In a short stay tourists are 
unable to form correct opinions of every thing they see and hear, 
although they often persuade themselves that they have acquired 
the fullest information. Yet they do succeed in furnishing the 
press with such abundant descriptions of the town and its imme- 
'diate surroundings that I should not be thanked for again trav- 
■elling over their narrow but well-beaten paths. 

I prefer to take my readers at once on excursions over 
'those less frequented. These journeys of several hundred 
miles have been chiefly accomplished on horseback, by which 
pleasant and exhilarating method of travelling we were enabled 
to see more of the country, and to form more correct ideas of its 
peculiar people, than by observation in any other way. 

My wife and myself were every where hospitably entertained 
in a region which fortunately for our purpose was generally with- 
out hotels. It is almost superfluous to remark, that as ladies are 
more communicative with each other than with a sex less accus- 



THE GREA T SAL T LAKE. I yp 

tomed to questions and answers, there were unsurpassed opportu- 
nities for obtaining information of domestic affairs. 

It would certainly have been impolitic and ungracious on 
our part to have undertaken missionary work. When the sub- 
ject of polygamy was introduced by our hosts, we did not fail to 
accept the challenge to dispassionate argument, but our object 
being to investigate, rather than to instruct, we looked upon so- 
ciety as we found it, extracting all the amusement it afforded. 

Without more preface, we will leave the city on a pleasant 
day about the close of September, and as we travel west and 
south will see the Great Salt Lake, the mountains, the valleys, 
the mines, and the people. 

The distance from Salt Lake City to Ophir canon is fifty- 
five miles. When the Utah Western Railroad is completed as 
far as contemplated, this will be one of the most agreeable ex- 
cursions from the city. It was a tedious, dusty drive in the stage- 
coach. Still, there are many pleasant views to be had from the 
road, passing across long desert wastes and over spurs of the 
mountain range. We reached the shores of the Great Salt Lake 
after a drive of three hours. Such is the optical illusion caused by 
this rarified atmosphere, that the city, left eighteen miles behind 
us, seemed to be only four or five miles distant, the houses being 
distinctly visible. The formation of the land contributes to this 
deception, ridges of mountains running north and south, and en- 
closing valleys of a width of about twenty-five miles, with no in- 
tervening elevations. We drove for an hour along the southern 
bank of Salt Lake, fanned by the breath of its sea air, and look- 
ing over its waste of waters dotted with mountain islands. It 
required but little imagination to transport ourselves to the 
shores of the Atlantic, for extending, as it does, ninety miles to 
the north, no land could be seen beyond the line of the clearly 



I So THE ROUND TRIP. 

defined horizon. Some years ago a steamboat of three hundred 
tons was built for freight and passenger traffic, in connection 
with the Union and Central Pacific roads ; but her fair prospects 
were ruined by the construction of the Utah Central, and she 
now lies at the wharf, her only value consisting in her occasional 
use for pleasure excursions. 

How this great basin of salt water came to be deposited in 
the interior of the continent, has been a study for geographers 
and naturalists. The changes taking place in its character 
at the present day are observed with much interest. It was 
first discovered by a party of trappers, long before the relig- 
ious discovery of Joseph Smith. When they had tasted of its 
waters they supposed that it was an arm of the sea coming in 
from the Gulf of California ; but, on their attempt to sail into the 
Pacific by that route, they experienced the same disappointment 
which befell the Dutchmen in their exploration of the North 
River, although they might have been led to just conclusions from 
different tests. 

The trappers should have realized that the water was too 
salt, and the Dutchmen should have found that the water was too 
fresh to communicate with the Pacific Ocean. 

Salt-making has been a business of great importance on the 
banks of the lake since the occupation of this territory by the 
Mormons. The water is so densely saline that it is impossible 
for a body to find the bottom. It is a capital place to acquire 
the art of swimming, with perfect safety. In former times three 
barrels of water left to evaporate, would produce one barrel 
of salt ; but it has so weakened in the last twenty years that 
four barrels of it are now required to obtain that quantity. It 
has become fresh, therefore, in a proportion of somewhat more 
than one per cent, yearly. Hence it follows that in less than 



THE GREAT SALT LAKE. l8i 

one hundred years the name of Great Salt Lake should be 
changed, for. by that time, it will, like Mormonism, be cleared of 
all its impurities. 

We notice the regular water lines, called benches, dis- 
tinctly defined on all the mountain ranges surrounding these 
valleys, affording unmistakable evidence that in former days they 
enclosed vast inland seas. The deep alkaline soil of the bot- 
toms has led to the supposition that these seas were of salt 
water, and that they have been completely evaporated, Salt Lake 
being the sole survivor, and that destined to dwindle to a 
puddle and then to dry up forever. But the last part of this 
theory is negatived by the evident intention of the lake to as- 
sume something of its original proportions ; while it is becom- 
ing fresher, it is growing larger. Within the twenty-nine years 
that the country around it has been settled, it has encroached 
along its low banks nearly a mile upon the land, and deepened 
five feet. Several fine farms are now permanentl}'^ under water, 
and the road on which we travelled has been moved far inward 
to accommodate its aggressiveness. At the same time that this 
change is going on, atmospheric causes for a part of it are ap- 
parent. The climate is becoming more mild, although it is still 
excessively dry. But each succeeding season brings a greater 
rainfall. This has doubled within twelve years. 

The lake is fed by the Bear and Weber rivers on the north, 
and the Jordan on the south, besides some small rivulets that 
find their way into it. Every year their volumes increase, and 
contribute to the filling up of the great basin into which they 
pour. Notwithstanding, the increase of the lake cannot be 
thus accounted for, as they are still but insignificant streams. 
It must be true that new fresh-water fountains have burst 
from the bottom. A like phenomenon has produced the lake 



l82 THE ROUND TRIP. 

near which we afterward passed at Stockton, where, on the 
ground encamped upon by Connor's army, there is now a 
body of water two miles square, and of considerable depth. If 
these changes go on as they have commenced, the Zion of Brig- 
ham Young will ere long become completely submerged. His en- 
emies will say that a second flood has been commissioned to over- 
flow the desert that he reclaimed, because of the sins of the 
people, and that, like Sodom and Gomorrah, these modern cities 
of the plain have been overwhelmed as a punishment for their 
unnatural crimes. But those judgments are yet afar off. Brig- 
ham taught that when Utah is destroyed all the earth will perish 
likewise, excepting that favored spot, Jackson county, Missouri. 
There it was, a divine revelation commanded him to build a 
temple which is destined to rise again from the ashes of the one 
destroyed by the Nauvoo mob. All the lowlands around it will 
rise at the same time, and the chosen remnant of mankind will 
flock to this elevated plateau, from whence, like Noah looking 
over the bulwarks of the ark, they will behold the drowning 
Gentiles struggling in the deep waters, while Mormons, in dry 
white robes, with harps in their hands, shall, like Nero, touch 
the strings, in mockery at the ruin of the universe. Then Jack- 
son county itself is to be caught up, and its glorified saints be 
distributed among the stars of the firmament. Thus the 
gradual rise of Salt Lake is not an indication of their destruc- 
tion, but a harbinger of their glory. 

Leaving Salt Lake far behind, our way led over the spur of 
the Oquirrh ridge, which there terminates and forms the eastern 
boundary of Tooele valley. Soon after dining at a wretched 
"half-way" house, we came in sight of the pretty little town of 
Tooele, that springs into life by the side of a mountain stream- 
which enriches it by its irrigation, and presents it in beautiful 



ELECTIONS. 183 

contrast with the surrounding desert. It is not like a town laid 
out in blocks and squares, but is literally an accumulation of 
garden spots. The trees and vines were loaded with apples, 
pears, jDeaches, melons, and grapes, which are dried and pre- 
served for use and exportation. Entering one of the gardens, 
we were offered an abundance of the delicious produce. The 
peaches were large and luscious — quite equal in flavor to those 
gathered on the Delaware. 

This little village, now so peaceful and quiet, was lately the 
scene of intense political excitement. The election quarrels at 
Tooele have not related to Republicanism or Democracy. Such 
trifling issues did not affect votes in any degree. The great 
question was, shall Judge Rowberry, the Mormon bishop, who 
for years had presided at the Probate Court, retain his office, or 
shall the Gentile Brown occupy his place ? In short, it was a 
religious fight. Bunyan's " Holy War " and Milton's " Paradise 
Lost" can only convey an idea of the fury of the battle. Mor- 
mon hosts were marshalled against the Gentile cohorts, the one 
considering themselves the armies of the Lord, and the others 
willing to be called the soldiers of Lucifer, so that they might 
gain the victory. Mormonism pressed every man and woman 
into its service, and the Gentile element ransacked all the min- 
ing camps of the country for its supplies. It was Lowlander 
against Highlander — the saints dwelling on the plains against 
the irreverent " cusses " of the mountains, who had invaded the 
soil heretofore sacred to the religion of the prophet. It was 
the first organized attempt to gain a Gentile foothold in any part 
of the territory. The means used for the assault were as unscru- 
pulous as those wielded for the defence. A federal official 
descended from his dignity to mingle in the broil, threatening, 
when he was interrupted in his speech, to " punch the head " of 



184 THE ROUND TRIP. 

his assailant, and to "boot out" the county clerk if he did not 
" dry up." Parson Smith, of the Methodist persuasion, is such 
a muscular Christian that when he was damned by some devout 
Mormons, he replied that he was not allowed to swear, but, 
throwing off his coat, said he "would lick the whole crowd, 
three at a time." Per contra, in a rather more quiet style of 
warfare, when they found the election was going against them, 
the Mormon judge and his clerk carried off the records of the 
court, which were not recovered without much difficulty. 

There was doubtless a great deal of illegal voting on both 
sides, from Mormon women who paid no taxes, and from Gentile 
miners who constituted themselves residents of two or three 
different camps at the same time. The end attained was a Gen- 
tile victory. 

Like travellers on Sahara, we had espied the green oasis of 
Tooele from afar. We had entered beneath its shady trees and 
luxuriated in its fruitful gardens, and now, leaving it regretfully 
behind, we were whirled through clouds of dust, over the 
desert again. All was a barren waste of stunted sage brush and 
alkali, till after three hours' drive we came to the Gentile set- 
tlement of Stockton, presenting itself in strong contrast to the 
charming little village of the saints. There the people, having 
planted their own vines and fig trees, were content to sit down 
beneath them and enjoy their fruits, with no ambitious desire 
of aggrandizement ; satisfied with the sure returns of hus- 
bandry, from which, after paying their tithing to the church, 
there is an abundance left to supply all the absolute wants of 
life. Tooele is a picture of happiness, if not the realization of 
what can never be fully attained ; Stockton seemed a represen- 
tation of misery sought for and found. 

Pitched on one of the bleakest spots that could be selected, 



OPHIR CAMP. 185 

•where no trees can take root, and scarcely a sage brush can show 

its head, built of rambling piles of logs, the only exception an 

abortive frame-house called a hotel, where bad dinners are eaten 

and worse liquors are quaffed, it is the home of a few workmen, 

who are employed in the neighboring furnaces of ore. What 

wages these men earn to repay them for passing any part of their 

existence in this execrable hole I do not know, but I am sure 

that a Tooele Mormon would not exchange his home for this, 

unless some special " exaltation " be promised in the world to 

come. 

Passing the lake of recent formation, we drove on toward Ophir, 

From the level of Salt Lake our ascent had been gradual. 

Over what appeared to be vast plains, the grade was scarcely 

discernible, but now it was quite apparent as we drew on 

toward the foot hills of the range looming up gradually before 

us. 

The sun had been pouring hotly down all day, and it was an 
inexpressible relief and pleasure when we entered the mouth of 
the canon, and the first tall cliff on the left threw its shadow 
over our path, permitting us to trace its dark outlines on the 
opposite mountain, whose summit was still in a blaze of bright- 
ness. In this delightful coolness of evening below, under the 
light of sunshine from above, we followed up the canon for three 
miles, and arrived at the city of Ophir. 

Like all the mining " cities " of these mountains, Ophir is a 
mere camp, containing a few stores, bar-rooms, and shanties for 
the supplies and accommodation of the miners, who are mostly 
distributed in the hills, only visiting the cities for their necessi- 
ties, or for the enjoyment of Sunday after their own fashion. 

One of the buildings serves the purpose of city hall, lyceum, 
dance-house and church, as occasion demands. The day 



1 86 THE ROUND TRIP. 

after our arrival the pulpit scaffolding was occupied in the morn- 
ing by an Episcopal clergyman, and in the evening by a Cath- 
olic priest, both of whom came in the same coach from Salt 
Lake. When the latter preached, his Protestant brother aided 
with us in making up the congregation, numbering a little more 
than a dozen. On the previous evening the hall had been crowded 
with dancers, who kept up a hideous noise till morning. Never- 
theless, it is fair to say that Sunday was very quietly observed, 
and there were few cases of drunkenness which caused much dis- 
turbance. 

Ophir citizens are not church-goers as a class, but they are 
as tolerant as they are ignorant in religious matters. The other 
Sunday a Methodist clergyman officiated, opening the services 
by requesting them to sing the hymn commencing, 

" O for a closer walk with God." 

After the meeting one of the congregation thanked him for his 
preaching, adding : " But, parson, you was more comp'mentry 
than we deserves. I dunno's Ophir camp's any better'n the rest 
of 'em ; we all walks a good deal closter the other way." 

Whenever a stranger comes into these camps he is immedi- 
ately encompassed by a crowd of kindly disposed gentlemen, 
who are willing to divide their interests in the most promising 
mines, which only require a little of his money for their devel- 
opment. They have prospects of wonderful "indications," " true 
fissure veins," "limestone and quartzite formations," "hanging 
and foot walls," " carbonate," " chloride," and other certainties 
of producing unlimited quantities of rich ore, thousands of tons 
of which are frequently " in sight." They want you to invest in 
the "running of tunnels" and the "sinking of shafts," and then 
to "put the mine in the market," in New York or London. As 



SUCCESSFUL B USINESS MEN. 1 8 7 

to " prospects," the mountains are as full of them as sandbanks 
are ever bored by swallows for their nests. 

The laboring miners are universally poor. They keep them- 
selves industriously in that condition, toiling away at their 
" prospects " until their flour and bacon give out, and then work- 
ing by the day in the large mines until they get money enough 
to buy powder and provisions to work on another prospect, 
when they find a " trace " or " cropping out " that affords them 
any hope. They have known or have heard of a few men who, 
having " struck a good thing," have risen from a condition like 
their own to the rank of millionaires, and why should not the 
same good fortune at last be theirs ? Instead of gambling with 
dice and cards, they gamble with the spade and pick, working 
harder and gaining as little. 

Among the thousand blanks there is occasionally a prize. 
The Walker brothers have drawn their full share. They came 
to Utah as members of the Mormon Church, toiled in the 
canons, cutting and drawing wood, gained a little property in 
this way, invested in land and merchandise, paying their tithing 
with regularity, until they accumulated a property on the income 
of which they did not care to pay ten per cent. One day they 
were reminded of their duty by Brigham Young, and sent 
him a check for ten thousand dollars. Brigham returned it with 
a notice that it was insufficient, whereupon they tore it up, paid 
tithing no longer, and left the church. 

They say the Lord has prospered them ever since. Brigham 
said the devil was their friend. No matter who has assisted 
them, the Walkers have done something for themselves. Their 
great warehouses are potent rivals of " Zion's Co-operative 
Mercantile Institution," and every hole of ground into which 
they dig becomes a mine of wealth. They own them in every 



THE ROUND TRIP. 



canon, and here in Ophir they reign supreme. What wonder is 
it that poor men, who but a few years ago worked side by side 
with these Walker brothers, should ask themselves, " As we 
have been equals once, why should we not be equals again ? " 



CAMP FLOYD. 189 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Camp Floyd Ruled by a Bishop and the BIshop Ruled 
BY HIS Wife — William Hickman — Lehi and the Bishop 
WHO Ruled his Wives and his Diocese — The Garden 
of Isaac Goodwin. 

The pursuits of Utah people may be classed like medicines, 
" vegetable " and " mineral." The Mormons are almost strictly 
agricultural, and the Gentiles devote themselves almost univer- 
sally to mining labor and speculation. Brigham encouraged his 
saints to cultivate the soil, and preached farming to them as a 
religious duty. The wisdom of his advice is apparent in the 
prosperity attending its practice. They abandon the precarious 
chances of the mines to others, who too often, after years of 
unavailing toil and broken down with disease, are forced to 
admit the worldly wisdom of the prophet. The entire attention 
of the dwellers in the mountains is given to silver mining, smelt- 
ing and milling. 

Where there is an abundance of lead present in the ore — and 
it frequently runs from forty to sixty per cent. — the silver is 
extracted by the process of smelting. The furnaces generally 
purchase the rough mineral as it comes from the mines, on a 
basis of forty to fifty per cent, lead ; that is, if the ore yield that 



I go THE ROUND TRIP. 

amount, the smelter takes it for his work and delivers the 
miner one dollar per ounce for all the silver that it contains. 
If the basis agreed upon falls short, the miners pay the smelter 
the difference per ton. If it overruns, the payment is reversed. 
Good smelting ore is that which being clear of pyrites comes up 
to the basis required, and then yields to the miner — pays him 
for the cost of his labor and transportation — thirty ounces of 
silver to the ton. 

Besides the mines of smelting ore, there are many of milling; 
that is, they produce a greater amount of silver than some of the 
others, but so little lead that the silver cannot be extracted 
by the smelting process. It is therefore crushed in stamp mills. 
This is milling ore. It is likewise mostly purchased by those 
who convert it into bullion. The rate given is nicely graded 
according to the assay. The lowest ore which will pay for 
crushing is that yielding $40 per ton ; on this is returned twenty- 
five per cent. ; on that yielding $100, fifty per cent. ; $200, sixty- 
five per cent. ; $500, seventy-nine per cent, ; $1,000, eighty- 
three per cent. These are mentioned to give an idea of the 
scale of intermediate assays. But expenses are very heavy; 
charcoal and coke are the only fuels that can be used for smelt- 
ing, the former becoming every day more scarce in this thinly 
wooded country, and coke has been supplied from Pittsburgh, 
Pa., at a cost of $30 per ton. As to the mills, there is not a 
sufficiency of the ore they require to keep them in operation 
more than four months in the year. Nevertheless, when well 
managed, smelting and milling both give large profits. The 
great requirement for Utah mining, is the proper fuel for smelt- 
ing purposes. When this is obtained more abundantly, the low- 
grade ores, which will not pay for working, will give steady 
employment to all the furnaces at present partially operated, and 



CAMP FLOYD. lyi 

will cause many more to be profitably run. The railroads now 
being rapidly constructed in the south and south-west will bring 
coal cheaply to market. Some of this, especially that from 
San Pete, two hundred and fifty miles from Salt Lake, it is 
claimed, can be coked, but owing to the quantity of sulphur it 
contains, the experiments thus far have not been entirely satis- 
factory. We spent a day in climbing the mountains on horse- 
back and on foot, with the purpose of looking at some of the 
mines on the summit of Zion mountain. At an almost perpen- 
dicular height of twenty-five hundred feet above the village, and 
consequently eleven thousand feet above the level of the sea, is 
a mine owned by the Walker Brothers, which they work to sup- 
ply the demands of their mill, getting out yearly, without any 
special development, the interest on the sum of $1,500,000, the 
price at which they offer to sell this property. As we wound up 
the mountain on the opposite side of the valley to a still higher 
point, we looked down upon their extensive works and tramways, 
on which the ore slides to the mills. 

Our trail led first to Dry Canon, to arrive at which we passed 
through Jacob City. This city, not " set upon a hill," but hang- 
ing like a collection of crows' nests on the side of a mountain,, 
cannot be approached on wheels. Sure-footed horses and mules 
are rather doubtful of their foothold in its streets paved with 
boulders and drained by the gully of a torrent. If heavy rains 
should swell the stream, as they are liable to do, or an avalanche 
of snow, which every winter threatens, should descend, the flimsy 
structures of Jacob City would fly into the abyss below, 
like a pile of shingles before the storm. Precarious indeed is 
the existence of the capital of Dry Canon. As we ascend, we 
see on the left the celebrated "Mono" mine, one half of which 
has been sold for $400,000. We met Mr, Gisborne, who owns 



192 THE ROUNiy TRIP. 

the other half. The net income of the mine is said to average 
$60,000 per month. When we looked at Mr. Gisborne, living in 
Jacob City, clothed in a shabby suit that at most could not have 
cost twenty dollars, smoking a cigar made far away from Cuba, 
and all his surroundings betokening a man in debt for his last 
meal, we asked ourselves, what is the use to him of an income 
of $360,000 per year ? A little boy once wished he was a king, 
for " then he would swing on a gate all day and lick 'lasses." 
We perhaps would do something similar if we had the income of 
Mr. (jisborne. We would buy a house on the Fifth avenue, 
loaf about the streets of New York, visit the clubs, and do noth- 
ing. We would have the dyspepsia and die of ennui. I appre- 
hend that Mr. Gisborne values his immense fortune only as a 
proof of his success as a business man, and is far happier in his 
mountain life, in exuberant health, than he would find himself if 
he followed any bad advice that we might give him. 

On the other side of the valley is the scarcely less noted 
Chicago mine. There we dismounted and descended a shaft 
hundreds of feet, through tunnels and drifts, dropping down 
on ladders, crawling on all fours through damp caverns, as we 
carried lighted candles in our hands. Here we saw the ore, 
deep buried for ages, now to be excavated, smelted, refined, 
coined and made into wealth for the luxury of those who will 
never see and pity, as we have done, the hard toil by which 
it is obtained. A very productive property in the mountains 
is a beautiful spring of water, running in a small stream over a 
great clifif of a thousand feet, descending in thin spray to 
an unapproachable chasm. The proprietor located this claim, 
and there he has established himself for the sale of all the water 
on the mountain ; for it is only after the melting of the snows 
that, for a short time, the watercourses are known in this " Dry 



CAMP FLOYD. 193 

Canon." There is no drilling or blasting needed to produce 
vrealth for this fortunate man. He sells the water for two and a 
half cents per gallon, realizing thousands of dollars annually 
without the outlay of a penny. The " Mono " and the " Chi- 
cago " may give out, but the spring is not likely to dry up. 

Leaving our horses at a place where their further progress 
was impracticable, we proceeded on foot, often swinging 
by our arms from one craggy rock to another, over the topmost 
ridge, to survey some prospects in which the gentlemen who 
accompanied us were interested. The location of a " prospect " 
is determined by various indications, the chief of which is the 
presence of a yellow ochre-colored dust. This leads to " crop- 
pings," the ore on the surface containing mineral. These 
"croppings " afford encouragement for the miner to sink a shaft, 
upon which he works nine times out of ten without success. 
We return to the place where our horses had been left, and 
mounting them again, rode over the divide above the Chicago 
mine to the side of the mountain sloping down toward OjDhir. 

If we could have taken passage in a balloon, or held on to 
the tail of a kite, we might have mounted to the top of the per- 
pendicular cliff above the village of Ophir, and dropped down 
on the other side to the settlement of Camp Floyd in Salt Lake 
valley ; but, until aerial navigation is more advanced, a stage 
wagon performs the mail and passenger service between these 
towns along the road over the foot hills, making a circuit of 
eighteen miles. 

It was a delightful drive, for, as we were hurried away at an 
early hour, the sun, rising out of sight on the opposite side of 
the mountains, had barely reached their summits before we had 
completed this first stage of our journey, so '^he road lay 
under the shadows, while far away in the west was the 

13 



ig4 THE ROUND TRIP. 

view of gilded peaks gradually brightening to their base, and 
the sunlight came step by step over the plains to meet us, 
till the dazzling sun himself mounted to the crest on our left, 
and poured around us the full blaze of day. By this 
time we had nearly approached Camp Floyd, once the location 
of a military post, but now a little Mormon village, where all 
vestiges of its former occupation have given place to cultivated 
fields and orchards. 

Bishop Carter presides over the spiritual interests of the 
people, his office also giving him the right to counsel them in 
temporal matters, in accordance with the recognized authority 
of the priesthood. It is a grave cause of complaint against the 
Mormons that they do not encourage the presence of any of the 
three learned professions. Unless the town is unusually large, 
the bishop is able not only to do the preaching, but to settle all 
disputes and to cure all ordinary diseases, by " the laying on of 
hands," quite as effectively as they are treated by the adminis- 
tration of drugs. It is only in cases that require the prompt 
services of a surgeon that he is forced to admit the inadequacy 
•of his spiritual power. 

Bishop Carter, who rules supreme over all other households 
iin Camp Floyd, we were told had lately found that laying on of 
hands has not acted well in his own case. He was originally, 
as he is now, a monogamist. But not long ago he saw fit to 
have a revelation commanding him to take another wife. Mrs. 
Carter did not see the angel who brought the message, for that 
angel was careful to avoid her. The bishop, however, trusting 
in divine protection, went up to Salt Lake " on business," and 
returned in the evening with another woman. It was then that 
he experienced an effectual laying on of hands, and Mrs. Carter 
No. 2 felt the laying on of a broomstick. Feminine muscular 



WILLIAM HICKMAN. 195 

Christianity prevailed over spiritual enforcement, and the bishop 
was made to realize that the power of a determined woman is 
one that cannot be withstood by a Mormon any more successfully 
than by a Gentile. The difficulty was settled by the bishop's 
marrying No. 2 after all — to another man. Mrs. Carter keeps 
a very excellent hotel, the breakfast provided for our company 
evincing that, as far as the travelling public are concerned, the 
lady at the head of the house is able to meet all their require- 
ments, as well as those of her husband, alone. 

The distance from Camp Floyd to Lehi is eighteen miles. 
As we drove out of the town the driver pointed to a seedy-look- 
ing vagabond, apparently sixty years of age, who was walking 
slowly along, smoking his morning pipe. The expression of his 
countenance was truly diabolical, and betokened a scoundrel 
whose society one would instinctively avoid. This was the 
notorious Bill Hickman, whose residence is in the neighbor- 
hood. 

Why the fiend is permitted to live is a mystery. His confes- 
sions of bloody deeds, if true, should expose him to the ven- 
geance of Gentiles whose friends he has slain ; if false, the won- 
der is that he is not riddled by Mormon bullets. It is a mark 
of the astonishing forbearance of this people that, believing him 
to be a malignant liar, they allow him to go about the country 
unmolested ; and the only accountable reason for his safety 
from the wrath of the Gentiles is, that they hope at some future 
day to use him as a witness to prove the murders committed 
by him at the bidding of the church. But the troubled con- 
science of the desperado is never at ease. He must have 
revelations, and terrible ones too; he must have angel visits at 
night, for the angels of darkness must hover around his unquiet 
bed, and hell must yawn at its side. He walks the streets by 



196 THE ROUND TRIP. 

day armed with two revolvers and a belt of cartridges, looking 
furtively about him to see if some avenger is not nigh. He 
steeps his damning memory in rum, yet dares not drink him- 
self totally insensible, lest, if found dead drunk away from 
home, he should never wake again. So fearful is he of a 
surprise that he never enters a bar-room where other men 
are present without standing with his back to the bar when 
the liquor is poured out for him. And thus he lives in a con- 
tinual hell. 

Happily he soon passed out of our minds, as after a short 
drive across the plains we came to a slight elevation, from which, 
in the distance, we could see the pretty town of Lehi, not 
far from the northern bank of Utah Lake. The lake extends 
in a southerly direction twenty miles, and is five or six miles 
wide, its western limit washing the foot of the Wasatch moun 
tain. 

It is of fresh water, and contains an abundance of trout and 
other fish. Its outlet is the Jordan river, a narrow but deep and 
sluggish stream, connecting it with Great Salt Lake, forty miles 
north. Far away to the south stretched the glassy lake, reflect- 
ing the noonday sun ; the rugged mountains its background, and 
the town, sheltered in the foliage of fruitful orchards, fringing its 
northern edge. Lehi is a much larger settlement than Camp 
Floyd, and contains 1,500 inhabitants under the paternal 
care of Bishop Evans, to whom we had been commended as 
willing to provide us with better accommodations than those 
at the little hotel. 

The Bishop is a jolly old Pennsylvanian, who came to this 
territory many years ago, and has contributed his share to in- 
crease its population, not being under such salutary restraint as 
his brother Carter. His No. i being dead. No. 2 has been 



LEHI. 197 

advanced to the rank of chief mate, six more of his female crew 
living in cabins of their own. He was very communicative on 
family matters. He evidently regarded No. 2 as the most val- 
uable wife, on account of her producing qualities. " I ought to 
have more children than I have," he said. "Why, I should have 
quite a family if all the rest of them kept up with her. She has 
had fifteen, and all the others together have not had but twenty- 
four." 

Discoursing upon matrimony in general, he observed that he 
considered all Gentile forms null and void. *' But," he added, 
" I wouldn't take a woman that belonged to a Gentile, because I 
consider it mean. I don't justify Parley Pratt in having done 
it — no — I want to avoid even the appearance of evil." The 
self-complacency of this prelate was something of the sublime, 
as he continued, " No, I would not take such a woman even if 
she asked me to, as these others did." 

" Do you mean to say, bishop," asked my astonished wife, 
surveying the unctuous pluralist, " that these women ask for the 
privilege of marrying you .'' " " Yes, ma'am," he replied, with 
some hesitation ; " three of 'em went for me straight, and the 
rest of 'em hung round gitten me to ask 'em." 

In this way did the garrulous old fellow go on until we were 
glad to be shown to our room. We had no reason to complain 
of our bed and board, nor of the attentions of No. 2, who man- 
ifested her interest in our welfare by shouting, as we left in the 
wagon, to be driven by our host to the station after breakfast, 
" Look out now for the bishop ; after all what he said last night, 
remember the more men have the more they want. When a 
man has one wife he's tolerably well satisfied ; but when he gets 
another he keeps going on, and there's no knowing where he'll 
stop." 



igS THE ROUND TRIP. 

Lehi is upon the Utah Southern Railroad, thirty-one miles 
south of Salt Lake City. Here we had arranged to meet a 
party of friends, who were to leave the town in the morning train, 
and accompany us on a visit to the American Fork Canon. To 
while away the time before they should arrive, we sauntered 
about the neighborhood of the station, under the shade trees 
of the wide streets, and looked with longing eyes upon the fruit- 
ful orchards surrounding almost every house. 

Entering a gate, and asking if the owner of the premises 
would sell a few peaches, we were met by a plump refusal. 
" No," replied an elderly man, "but you can take as many as 
you please. Come in and let me show you my garden." A 
second invitation was not needed, although it was extended with 
equal cordiality by his wife. The garden was what is called a 
double lot. It comprised two and one-half acres of ground, 
every foot of which, except the walks, was under complete culti- 
vation. Nothing can exceed the richness of this soil, irrigated 
at pleasure from the mountain streams. Although subject to 
grasshopper visitations and the like casualties, a drought is 
never apprehended, for that is impossible. 

Mr. Isaac Goodwin, whoso kindly entertained us, was a Con- 
necticut farmer, but has lived here for twenty-eight years. He 
was an earlier Mormon than any of the first settlers of Utah, for 
he was a California pioneer. The little band of 321 pilgrims, of 
which he was one, that sailed in the ship Brooklyn from New 
York for San Francisco, landed there in July, 1846. This was 
two years before the discovery of the gold that brought such a 
different class of pilgrims to worship at its shrine. The Mormon 
settlers formed the colony of San Bernardino already described, 
then, like Utah, a part of the Mexican territory. 

Mr. Goodwin gave us many interesting reminiscences of 



THE GARDEN OF ISAAC GOODWIN. igg 

their early sufferings and privations, and of their final success in 
acquiring, by peaceful overtures, the friendship of the Indians 
whom the Mormons have always had a peculiar tact in concilia- 
ting. If gold had not been discovered, if the Mexican war had 
not supervened, if Brigham's revelations had not induced him to 
order the colony to break up and remove to Utah, we should 
have seen at this day what an empire these indomitable enthu- 
siasts would have obtained in a country where nature did not 
oppose such obstacles as they have here overcome. No railroad 
would have approached them or ridden over them rough-shod, 
but they would have been allowed to work out the problem of 
their distinct civilization unmolested in their freedom of action. 

But Providence determined that they could be put to a better 
use here in paving the way for a higher civilization than their 
own. Goodwin was the man who, with only one companion, 
travelled across the continent, successfully braving natural obsta- 
cles and hostile Indians, until they met Brigham Young on the 
eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, and told him of the fer- 
tility of the soil of California. It was by his report Brigham 
was induced to act in accordance with his revelation, as the 
Mormons believe, but, as we are inclined to think, from the con- 
viction that he would not be allowed to remain there. Their 
first settlement here proved of the greatest advantage in aiding 
emigrants to cross the plains in the earlier days of the occupa- 
tion of California, and subsequently in the construction of the 
Union and Central Pacific Railroads, which have bound them in 
the embrace of our common country. 

We are fond of listening to the tales of these gray fathers of 
the land, especially when, as coming from such a one, they bear 
the impress of unquestionable truth. He was a man of great 
sagacity and general information — a New Englander imbued 



200 THE ROUND TRIP. 

with those Puritan principles that make martyrdom an absolute 
pleasure. Yet, like all who come here from that section, his faith 
in Mormonism is not exceeded by that of the most ignorant 
and superstitious Dane or Norwegian. 

As Mr. Goodwin talked, we supplied ourselves abundantly 
with peaches, plums and grapes. Still waiting, not impatiently, 
for the train, we entered the tidy little cottage, where the pro- 
prietor and his only wife devoted themselves still further to our 
entertainment. " I have a kingdom of my own," said he, " with- 
out going into polygamy : this old lady, seven children, and 
thirty-three grandchildren. I believe in the doctrine for those 
who like it, but God never required it of me. Matrimony is a 
'straight and narrow path.' I like to go it alone. Now you 
hang a plummet down from the wall and let it drop between two 
women. Each of them will say it swings nearer the other one 
than toward her. I might be straight up and down like that 
plummet, and though the women mightn't say any thing, both of 
them w^ould think I was leaning the wrong way from her. So 
much for two women. Now hang yourself like a plummet in a 
circle of half a dozen, and then you can make some calculation 
what kind of a time you would have through life." 

Thus within the last two days we have seen three different 
representations of matrimony. Bishop Carter is a monogamist 
because he dare not open the door to another woman ; Bishop 
Evans is a pluralist because he likes polygamy, although he says 
the seven women will cleave unto him whether he wants them or 
not ; and good, honest, straight and narrow-walking Isaac Good- 
win gets along through the world in peace and contentment with 
only one wife, because he loves her too well to take another. 
Let those of troubled conscience at home, who think that " no 
good thing can come out of Nazareth," be consoled with the 



THE GARDEN OF ISAAC GOODWIN. 201 

knowledge that there are many more like Goodwin in the Mor- 
mon church, and that such leaven as this will yet leaven the 
whole lump, if meddlesome fingers will but leave it alone. 

The shrill whistle of the engine was heard in the distance, 
and we hastened to meet our friends in the train, parting reluc- 
tantly with those, who now bade us farewell, loading us with 
fruits and benedictions. 



202 THE ROUND TRIP. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
Sorghum — Luzerne — The American Fork Canon. 

We entered the train at Lehi and were landed at American 
Fork station in a few minutes, the distance being only three 
miles south, along the shores of Utah Lake. While waiting for 
the cars in which we were to be taken over the narrow-gauge 
railroad to the canon, we had an opportunity to inspect a sor- 
ghum plantation. The surroundings reminded us of Louisiana 
and Cuba, excepting that the whole arrangement was on a 
minute scale, and that a few white men and boys were doing 
the work there performed by an ebony crowd. 

An inexperienced cockney would readily mistake a plantation 
of sorghum for a field of broom corn, which it so much resem- 
bles. It is thickly planted, like sugar cane, and similarly har 
vested and ground. The stock has the same saccharine prop- 
erty, though in a lesser degree. The grinding apparatus is not 
unlike a cider mill, and was worked by a patient mule, busily 
engaged in making his distances on the small circle. The juice 
is boiled down from one kettle to another, until at last it ac- 
quires the consistency and flavor of good southern molasses. 
But its sweetness refuses to consolidate itself into anything 
better than what Jack of the forecastle calls " long sugar." The 
cultivation of this cane is rapidly increasing in Southern Utah, 



THE AMERICAN FORK CANON. 203 

where the climate is exceedingly favorable. One hundred gal- 
lons of molasses are produced to the acre, and this, clear of all 
the expenses attending it, nets to the planter one hundred dol- 
lars. If a farmer in New York State or New England could 
make ^10,000 per annum from his farm of 100 acres, he would 
not have his present complaints to make. 

Another very productive industry of this district is the cul- 
tivation of what is called luzerne, and in California styled 
alfalfa. Four crops are here cut in a year, while further south 
seven harvests of it are obtained. The old Scripture simile of 
the " desert blossoming as the rose," beautifully and poetically 
expresses the change that has taken place in these valleys in 
twenty-seven years, but it is inadequate to give an idea of a 
land whose very paths drop with the fatness of rich abundance. 
Leaving these fertile plains behind us, we were shown to an 
open observation car, which the superintendent of the American 
Fork Railroad had added to the train for the comfort and 
pleasure of our party. 

Messrs. Rowland & Aspinwall of New York are the chief 
owners of the Miller mine, the principal property in this 
canon. It is located at the highest point, twenty-three miles 
distant from this, the nearest station on the Utah Southern 
Railroad. Although the mine was at one time very productive 
of valuable ore, it was almost inaccessible, on account of the 
roughness and steepness of the trail. To overcome these 
obstacles, this narrow-gauge road was constructed for fifteen 
miles. Its cost, comprising the equipments, has amounted to 
nearly four hundred thousand dollars. So great has been the 
expense and so much disappointment has been experienced in 
the productiveness of the mine, that although the road has been 
graded for a great part of the distance, the eight miles at, the 



204 "^^^ ROUND TRIP. 

upper end of the canon is still only a rough wagon road. But an 
unselfish happiness should be theirs. Among the many tourists 
who avail themselves of the pleasant means they have afforded 
the public of visiting some of the most magnificent scenery in 
the world, we tender them our hearty thanks. 

The excursion must now be made for the whole distance on 
a wagon road, the railroad having been discontinued. 

We began a gradual ascent over the foot hills for three 
miles, drawing nearer and nearer to the grand massive range 
of seemingly impenetrable mountains, till they loomed up like 
impassable barriers to our progress. Suddenly a chasm was 
opened between two enormous perpendicular cliffs, and through 
this narrow valley away was afforded hardly of sufficient breadth 
to allow of the passage of the train. Creeping up a grade of 
316 feet to the mile, we wound round one point after the other, 
sometimes under the dull shadow of dripping rocks, and then 
coming out into the warm sunlight that fell upon hill slopes car- 
peted with the loveliest velvet green, and figured with clumps of 
pine trees and autumnal tints of wild shrubbery. 

It was a glorious day of this most glorious season of the 
year, when Nature in her harvest robes is joyful on the plains, 
and in her mountain plaids surpassingly attractive. The 
mountains, as they gathered round us, in our ever-changing 
progress, seemed to leap for joy, and the sparkling brook danced 
to its own melody. The sublimity and beauty of the scene spread 
over our little company such a feeling of awe, that at times we 
were lost in silent admiration, and again were carried to such 
ecstasy of delight, that words could not be found for its expres- 
sion. Scenery like this always forces from the observer the con- 
viction that all he has seen before is tame and insignificant in 
comparison. 



THE AMERICAN FORK CANON. 205 

So the White mountains, the towering Appenines, Mont 
Blanc, the Bernese Oberland, and even the Yo Semite faded away 
into dim pictures of the past, in the transcendent light of this 
almost unknown canon of the Wasatch Mountains. 

A bountiful lunch was provided for us at Deer Creek, the 
terminus of the railroad, and then, some in a wagon, some on 
horseback, and one on foot who arrived first of all, we ascended 
the canon for four miles to "Forest City," a municipality com- 
prising some smelting works and charcoal furnaces for its public 
buildings, and four shanties for the inhabitants of its various 
wards. The Miller mine is four miles still higher up. Two 
of us ascended to it by a bridle path, varying our route to 
examine another newly developed mine. 

Finally, by a zigzag trail we reached the Miller at a short 
distance from the summit of the mountain, a few moments before 
the sun went down. His last rays lingered long enough to light 
the high peaks, while the deep valleys were almost shrouded in 
night. There we stood, 11,000 feet above the level of the sea, 
and surveyed the great panorama of alternate day and night, 
extending to mountains around, and over chasms below. 

It was the very night of the full moon, when she rises at the 
moment of the setting of the sun. Strangely then the picture 
changed ; the splendor and the grandeur faded and vanished 
away, but a softness and a beauty succeeded, even more pleasing 
than the magnificence of the day. The sharp outlines of the 
mountains were toned down to the smoothness of grassy mounds, 
all colors were blended into a grayish blue, the hills were drawn 
together, and the hazy bottoms of the valleys rose to the appear- 
ance of elevated plains. So contracted did all things now 
appear, that but an hour before were spread abroad in immensity. 

Daylight and darkness are alike in mines. Mr. Epley showed 



2o6 THE ROUND TRIP. 

us a part of the works which had been commenced four years 
ago. He lives at the mine during the winter as well as summer 
months. For weeks at a time he is often alone, so far as con- 
genial society is concerned, but in his little cabin there is a 
choice library well stocked with standard works. There, when 
the snow flies and the tempest howls, he sits with Shakespeare, 
Addison, Pope, Macaulay, Scott, Cooper, and Dickens, besides 
a number of scientific gentlemen, whose companionship we should 
not so much covet, and communing with these, is at peace, 
though all without is elemental war, " Is it not cold ? " we asked. 
" Not very ; the glass seldom falls to lo deg. below zero." "A 
great deal of snow, is there not? " " Why, yes; about forty feet 
deep." "Hard place to live in the winter?" "No; not with 
my books." Happy Mr. Epley ! 

By moonlight we descended to Forest City, and, after our 
long and romantic ride, were right glad to enjoy the supper, at 
which we were anxiously awaited by our companions. In the 
morning we were rattled down to the railroad station at Deer 
Creek, where we again took the observation car, descending 
without the company of an engine. A brakeman sat at each end 
of the carriage and moderated its speed, and thus we glided 
smoothly down. 



PROVO. 



207 



CHAPTER XXV. 

pROvo — Factory and Co-operative Store — The Two Mor- 
mon Sects — The Childless Bishop and his More For- 
tunate Brother. 

We came again to what was then the terminus of the Utah 
Southern Railroad, a pretty little city of 4,000 inhabitants, 
fifty miles from Salt Lake, where the mountains overshadow it 
from the east, and the waters of Utah Lake ripple on the shores 
at its feet. This is Provo. 

We came on a lovely summer afternoon, for it was the Indian 
summer of October. The mountains were still hiding in their 
rocky clefts clumps of shrubbery, variegated with every hue. 
Quantities of apples, peaches and plums were yet remaining 
upon the garden trees, and winter seemed to be far away. 

But as evening drew on, dark clouds gathered over the 
Wasatch peaks, and dropped in misty curtains over the valley, 
the trees swayed in the fitful gusts that filled the air with dust, 
and the placid lake scowled darkly, and broke into a miniature 
sea of white-capped waves. 

In the wild night the' rains descended and the winds blew, 
and when the morning dawned the streets and gardens were 
overflowed by water, floating away the fallen fruit and leaves, 
and the mountains, from their summits down to an even, dark 
line, where the snow changed to rain, were covered with a 



2o8 THE ROUND TRIP. 

white mantle, concealing beneath its folds alike the bare rocks 
and the autumn-tinted shrubbery. Winter had come. 

Within doors we were comfortably lodged, fed and warmed 
by Bishop Miller, and there we proposed to remain until summer 
should return, not for months, but for a few days. 

Utah seasons are not like those described by Thomson 
as changing with great regularity. They come and go. The 
autumn here is not a season by itself. It is made up of alternate 
summer and winter. " Wait a day or two," said the bishop, 
" and summer will come again ; then you can go on your way. 
In the mean time I will look up a couple of good saddle beasts, 
and you can go out between the drops and see the city." 

We readily acquiesced in the title given to Provo. It is 
one of the earliest Mormon settlements, and its prosperity 
always was a pet delight of Brigham Young. To describe the 
laying out of one Mormon town is to describe them all. There 
are the same methods of rectangular streets, bordered on each 
side by running water, and shaded by cottonwoods and locusts, 
all the house lots and orchards enclosing cottages, and every thing 
about the localities betokening quiet contentment. 

As we go further from the metropolis we see less of what 
in the East is styled comfort, and as we become accustomed 
to its absence we are apt to think that our idea of comfort is 
after all one of luxury not absolutely necessary to the enjoyment 
of life. Good taste is invariably displayed in the selection of 
town sites. This is involuntary, but the eflfect is none the less 
charming. Each settlement, large or small, nestles under some 
mountain range and at the mouth of a canon. The streams 
that run down these narrow defiles are caught in ditches before 
they waste themselves on the plains, and are made useful in 
irrigating the village gardens and the fields surrounding them. 



FACTORY AND CO-OPERATIVE STORE. 209 

At the mouth of Provo Canon this little city is not only well 
watered and pleasant to the eye, but, owing to the volume and 
rapid fall of the river, is happily situated for manufacturing en- 
terprise. We were shown through the largest cloth factory in 
the Territory, a capacious stone building which, with its machin- 
ery, cost over $200,000. It has been in operation six years, and 
besides giving employment to one hundred operatives, is a very 
profitable concern to its stockholders. The blankets, flannels, 
shawls and cloths turned out by this establishment are finished 
goods that would not disgrace the counters of the fashionable 
dealers in our great cities. It is certainly creditable to Brigham 
Young that he introduced the best breeds of sheep into Utah, 
and in such a short period followed the experiment from the 
beginning to the end, and through all the processes produced 
these proud results. 

The manager of the co-operative store explained the working 
of the institution. Like the woollen factory, it is a stock concern, 
and as far as possible is made subservient to the profit as well 
as the wants of the community. The shares are issued at twenty- 
five dollars each, in order to induce all classes of people to 
participate in the copartnership. 

In no community are wealth and poverty more evenly dis- 
tributed. It may be said of Provo, a city of 4,000 inhabitants, that 
there is not a rich man or a poor man in its limits. It would be 
difficult to find anywhere an assemblage of an equal number of 
inhabitants so contented with the answer to Agur's prayer, " Give 
me neither poverty nor riches." 

Our host, the bishop, was one of the " early pioneers." I have 
previously noticed the unusually large percentage of old people 
we everywhere meet. It would seem that the pilgrimage over 
the desert in 1847 gave to ever3'one who undertook and finished 

14 



210 THE ROUND TRIP. 

it, a new lease of life. These old folks never die, for they have 
earned a claim to immortality. The bishop was an intimate 
friend of Joseph Smith the prophet, sharing with him many of 
his adventures and persecutions. 

His conversation elicited the truth of a very important but 
much disputed matter of church history. The question has 
often been discussed, was Joseph Smith, the originator of the 
Mormon sect, a polygamist ? The Josephites, or as they are 
sometimes called, the members of the "Reformed Church of the 
Latter-Day Saints," deny it emphatically, claiming that his own 
life was one of purity, and that he did not countenance impurity 
in others. Hiey accordingly discarded this pernicious doctrine 
which they say is a device of Brigham Young. 

In almost every other dogma of their religion they are in 
accord with the dominant sect. We have listened to their 
preaching and never discovered any other material difiference. 
They use the same religious books in their worship, and argue 
from them the prohibition of polygamy with as much earnestness 
as Orson Pratt displays in its advocacy. They all accept the 
Bible as a literally inspired book from beginning to end. 

The outside Christian world, desirous of establishing a purer 
form of worship in Utah, would best attain its object by en- 
couraging this sect of Josephites. The prevalence of their 
teachings would reform Mormonism, and that certain result 
would be better than all that can be accomplished by uncertain 
missionary effort. It may be said of this, in general terms, that 
it is a waste of time and money, and that all that the Presby- 
terians, Methodists, and Episcopalians have done in the Territory 
has been among themselves, few converts having been made 
from Mormonism, 

When a Mormon apostatizes he almost always becomes an 



THE TWO MORMON SECTS. 2 1 1 

infidel or a spiritualist. It will be admitted by most people that 
Christianity of any kind is better than infidelity, and no un- 
prejudiced person can study the Mormon religion and its effects 
upon those who embrace it without coming to the conclusion 
that if it could be shorn of its one objectionable excrescence, it 
would confer as much happiness upon this condition of society 
as any other form or creed could bestow. I should like to see 
the Mormons complying with the law of the land, which has 
made polygamy a crime, but apart from this I have not the least 
desire for their conversion. 

Unfortunately for the Josephites and for the reformation they 
propose to bring about, they will be unable to establish the fact 
that Joseph Smith was a monogamist. His earlier writings and 
practice, and all the teachings of his " Book of Mormon," were 
clearly in favor of monogamy ; but, however willing to be virtuous 
was his spirit, his flesh became weak, and for several years 
before his death he was living in violation of his own precepts. 
There are old men in Utah who say that he had at least nine 
wives. 

Our friend Bishop Miller produced this conclusive- testimony. 
He and another member of the church told us that the revelation 
of polygamy was read openly three years before the death of the 
prophet, and that they had heard it. Moreover, Bishop Miller 
was married to his wife No. 2, at Nauvoo, by Hyrum Smith, the 
brother of the prophet Joseph, two years before those two men 
were killed by the mob at Carthage. 

Such proofs, easily brought forward, will lessen the influence 
of " Josephism." But despite of them, the name itself of the 
sect, and the purer morality of its teachings, will be powerful 
arguments in its favor. Combining with other causes, they will 
surely produce the needed reformation in the church. 



212 THE ROUND TRIP. 

The surroundings of our host evinced that he was a prosper- 
ous man. Yet there was sometimes a shade of melancholy 
passing over his genial face. This was always apparent when 
children were referred to in conversation. At first we thought 
that he had lost some of his little ones, but we afterward dis- 
covered that he had had no little ones to lose. Hinc illae lach- 
rynix. 

Two comely and agreeable matrons in his household took 
excellent care of him. Besides, he had been owned by four 
more, now deceased ; and yet the poor bishop was childless. 
Each woman thought it the greatest curse that could fall upon 
her, and their general head considered that he was six times 
accursed. 

True, they had been exemplary Christians to the best of their 
knowledge and ability, conscientiously fulfilling all the duties of 
this life, but they had done absolutely nothing toward peopling 
the '' celestial kingdom." Those crowns of glory to be fitted on 
to the heads of their productive neighbors were not for theirs, 
and their " exaltations around the throne " would be of a low 
degree. 

How much happier both in this life and in the life to come 
is and is to be the condition of one of their venerable townsmen ! 
He is ninety-two years of age and the father of sixty children. 
The eldest is seventy years old and the youngest is sixty-seven 
years his brother's junior. We were sorry that this patriarch 
was not at home. How delightful it would have been to see him 
trotting these two children of seventy and of three on his knees, 
and to hear him repeat from " Mother Goose " — 

" Tom Brown's two little darling boys! 
One wouldn't stay, and t'other ran away — 
Tom Brown's two little darling boys ! " 



THE yOURNEY TO THE SOUTH. 213 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

The Journey to the South — The Hotel at Payson — Our 
Landlady's Choice — Mormon and Gentile Amenities 
— Hospitalities of the Bishops — Mount Nebo — En- 
ergetic Conduct of a Bishop's Wife — San Pete Val- 
ley — War, the Consequence of Miss Ward's Obstinacy 
— A Monogamous Mormon Town — Reflections of Mrs. 
Price — The Coal Mines. 

After two days the storm abated, and on the third morning 
the sun rose brightly over the mountains, now covered nearly to 
their base with snow. Winter seemed to have fixed his per- 
manent abode among them, while summer was permitted to re- 
turn for a short visit to the valleys. It was summer, with all its 
agreeable warmth, but not too hot for travel ; summer, lacking 
somewhat of the pleasant views of green meadows, ripening 
harvests, and fruitful trees, but compensating these losses by 
enhanced beauty of mountain scenery. 

The bishop had secured two ponies of promising character, 
but with peculiarities subsequently developed. As we were pro- 
vided with our own outfit of saddle and side-saddle, we had noth- 
ing more to ask for, but cheerfully agreeing to pay half a dollar 
a day for each of the animals, for the time they might be 
required, we packed our luggage, and, mounting them, bade the 



214 THE ROUND TRIP. 

bishop and his family good-by for the present. Then, over a 
ground made soft by the late rains, we took our course to the 
south, along the eastern shores of Utah Lake. 

On the first afternoon we passed through Springville and 
Spanish Fork, and arrived at Payson, eighteen miles from Provo, 
in the evening. The road lay along the " bench " below the 
Wasatch mountains. By turning our faces to the left we could 
enjoy a continual view of winter magnificence, and then looking 
down upon the bottoms, find enough of summer still there to 
make a pleasing picture, while beyond the dark blue waters of 
the lake contrasted beautifully with the snowy Oquirrh range in 
the west. 

As we rode up to the door of the neat little inn, we were 
agreeably surprised to meet Judge Emerson, who, with a party, 
was on his return from the Tintec mines to Provo. This gentle- 
man, although a Federal officer, is highly respected and esteemed 
alike by Mormons and Gentiles. 

The Mormons accept his decisions as made in accordance 
with the spirit of the law he is placed here to enforce. No one 
of them, excepting the most bigoted, can complain of him for 
being the agent of the Government, and no Gentiles, excepting 
the mischief-makers of the "ring, " assert that he is too lenient 
to the Saints. 

His present journey was an instance of his ability to hold 
their mutual confidence. There had been a dispute concerning 
a mine between a Gentile and a Mormon. Each of them, desir- 
ous of avoiding legal expenses, had agreed that the judge should 
go with them to the spot, and there decide the question. This 
had been done, and all parties were returning amicably together. 
The arrangement was especially agreeable to us, as it afforded 
an evening of pleasant entertainment. 



OUR LANDLADY'S CHOICE. 215 

In the course of conversation a Mormon of the party observed 
that, although he was a "pluralist," and was very happy in 
his domestic relations, he recognized the right of Government to 
enforce its law against polygamy, provided it was constitutional. 
He and many other reflecting men were perfectly willing that 
some test case should be brought into the courts, in order that 
the vexed question might speedily reach the highest tribunal and 
be forever set at rest. This desire has since been gratified. 

The little hotel at Payson was a model of comfort. It had 
lately been established by a young couple, the husband a Gen- 
tile and the wife a Mormon. The linen and the table service 
were faultless. There was no abominable stove to burn out the 
oxygen and poison the atmosphere, but a soft coal fire was 
flaming cheerfully in the grate, and every thing reminded us of 
the easy luxury of an English country inn. 

We asked our pretty landlady how she came to marry a Gen- 
tile. " Why, isn't he handsome?" she replied ; "and then he 
is good, and then — and then — I wanted every bit of him to my- 
self ! Father didn't like it, mother didn't like it, but I did." 

We had known of similar vagaries among other young women, 
and as fathers and mothers become reconciled to them after a 
while, we sincerely hope that the obdurate hearts of these Mor- 
mon parents will relent. Payson, containing about 2,000 in- 
habitants, is a thriving farming town. 

In the morning we went on our way south, leaving the shores 
of the lake, which here has its south-western limit. We had 
passed out of Salt Lake valley before coming to Provo, and now 
on reaching Santaquin, came to the southern end of Utah valley, 
following the new grade of the Utah Southern Railroad. Every 
mile this thoroughfare progresses is a gain to the mining and 
agricultural interests of the South. These Utah railroads are 



2i6 THE ROUND TRIP. 

dependent upon no land grants, concessions, or subsidies of any 
kind. In the exact proportion of the demand and necessity for 
them, they are constructed by the iDeople and for the people who 
need them. Bonds are issued for two-thirds of the cost, and 
they are not dependent upon Government charity or the chances 
of Congressional action. There is no watering of stock. In 
short, they are built by honest men for honest purposes. To 
meet the wants of the newly developed mines at Frisco, this road 
is now under contract to be extended one hundred and fifty 
miles in a south-westerly direction, and by other connections will 
doubtless in due time reach the Pacific. At Santaquin we 
reached, by a somewhat sharper grade, the more elevated valley 
of Juab, three or four miles wide and thirty miles long, Nephi, 
sixteen miles south of Santaquin, being its shire town. 

Progressing ten miles in that direction, we came to the small 
settlement of Willow Creek. We were provided with an encyc- 
lical letter from a church dignitary in Salt Lake, addressed " to 
all the bishops south. " It was intimated therein that we were 
in search of information, and we were accordingly commended 
to the courtesy of these country ecclesiastics, who were request- 
ed to furnish refreshments when the lack of hotels obliged us to 
claim their hospitalities. We found them assiduous in contrib- 
uting to our comfort, and ready to impart all the knowledge 
they possessed. Many of them are in very moderate circum- 
stances, but all have enough and to spare. A Mormon brother 
is always welcome to board and lodging gratis, and even a Gen- 
tile often finds it difficult to make them accept any remuneration. 

At Willow Creek we accordingly called upon Bishop Kay 
for the requirements of ourselves and our animals. Again we 
found an early pioneer, and listened to the oft-repeated story of 
crossing the desert. 



SALT LAKE CITY 217 

Salt Lake City is 4,300 feet above the level of the sea. We 
had mounted 700 feet in a distance of ninety miles. Here, 
directly against and almost above the village, is Mt. Nebo, the 
highest peak in the Territory. It was incomparably magnificent, 
clothed in its spotless robe shaded into a delicate pink at its 
summit, 7,000 feet above us. 

The wonderful rarefaction of the atmosphere plays curious 
freaks with our estimation of distance. I said to the bishop 
that I should like to spend a day, if time allowed, in going up to 
the peak. " Well, " he replied, " you might start this afternoon 
and if you did not freeze in the night you might possibly get 
there by sunset day after to-morrow. You remind me of an 
Englishman travelling through this back country a few years ago. 
He thought everything looked so near that he hadn't far to go, and 
he never could understand why he could not get along faster. 
At last he got on a little ahead of the party. They came up to 
him on the bank of a small brook two feet wide. He was 
taking off his boots to wade over. 'Why don't you jump across.?' 
somebody asked him, ' Aw, you see,' replied the Englishman, 
' I've been deceived so often that I fancied this brook might be 
half a mile wide, and I might be obliged to swim ! ' " 

After dinner we rode to Nephi, over a level bench of sage 
brush for most of the way. 

I have described Nephi in the mention of Payson and 
Provo. There is a sameness of beauty in them all. It contains 
about 2,000 inhabitants, and two hotels, one of which we know 
to be well kept by Mr. Seeley, an old Californian. " Are you a 
Mormon or a Gentile ? " I asked. " Nary one, " replied Seeley, 
" I'm a neutral." He had been to California in search of gold, 
he said, and had not found it. So he had come here in search 
of peace and quiet. Surely he has attained it. 



2i8 THE ROUND TRIP. 

California and Utah solve the problem of longevity. The 
gold hunters went to California in 1849. Ten years earlier 
the religious enthusiasts came to Utah. At San P'rancisco the 
veterans of '49 have the annual meetings of their society. Very 
few of them are now left ; of these too many are broken down 
old men. Auri sacra fames produces an equal appetite for 
whiskey, and together they craze the brain. In no country is 
suicide so common, or old age so rarely attained, notwithstand- 
ing its unrivalled climate, as in California. In Utah, where 
winter howls among the mountains for half the year, and the toil 
of the farmers in the valleys is incessant, the robust exercise of 
the woodman and the quiet existence of the agriculturist, their 
temperate habits and the training of their minds in continual 
regard to the practice of religion in this world with reference to 
its hopes for the future — these conditions bring but little wear 
and tear on the human frame. Men live out their three score 
years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be fourscore 
years, the Psalmist would admit that their strength is not always 
labor and sorrow. 

The extensive Tintec silver mines can be reached from Nephi 
by an easy grade for a narrow gauge road of twenty miles in a 
westerly direction, while it is also the nearest and most con- 
venient junction for the narrow gauge road contemplated and 
surely to be built for the San Pete valley, that will contribute its 
coal and its grain. This is reached by the Salt Creek canon, 
through which we took our road. 

The ascent is very gradual, little of it being on its steepest 
grade of 200 feet to the mile. The cafion is so wide that the 
height of the mountains at its sides is not fully realized, and 
there are always perplexing ideas of distances. By a circuitous 
track we wound along, keeping mainly a southeast course, 



SAN PETE VALLEY. 219 

but often steering due north. In this way we circled Mt. Nebo, 
until we had a full view of its eastern slope, as beautiful in the 
morning light as its western side appeared in the sunshine of the 
previous afternoon. 

With the exception of a saw-mill and one cattle ranch, there 
was no sign of habitation or life upon the road until we came to 
Fountain Green, the first village in San Pete valley, into which 
we descended from the divide, after making fifteen miles from 
Nephi. Bishop Johnson not being at home, Mrs. Johnson gave 
us a kindly welcome, and spread before us an abundant and 
cleanly meal. 

Polygamy is not much countenanced in San Pete, as would 
appear by the energetic conduct of our hostess not long ago. I 
have related the experience of the bishop of Camp Floyd, when 
he pursued matrimony under difficulties. His brother of Fountain 
Green fared even worse. He also conjugated surreptitiously. 
When Mrs. Johnson discovered that he had another house, she 
dressed herself in male apparel, and armed with an axe, de- 
stroyed the honeymoon. Fortunately mistaking the bedpost for 
one of their heads, she hacked it into a broken shaft over the 
grave, as it were, of love nipped in its early bud. 

The valley was originally called by the Indian name of San 
Pitch, a chief of this region. San Pitch headed the war which 
devastated these settlements ten years ago. As in the difficulty 
that occurred at Eden, Troy, and thousands of other places, a 
woman was the cause of this trouble. Barney Ward, an old 
settler before the time of the Mormon occupation of the valley, 
was on such terms of friendship with San Pitch, that he promised 
him his daughter in marriage when she should become of a 
suitable age. But when that time arrived, the young woman was 
found to have a will of her own. She rejected the advances of 



220 THE ROUND TRIP. 

the swarthy Ute, and he took vengeance on the whites for the 
jilting he had received. The innocent people who had begun to 
settle in the valley were murdered or driven out, their habitations 
laid waste, their crops burned, and their cattle stolen. All this 
happened because of the obstinacy of Miss Ward. 

At the close of the war the Mormons returned, and again 
built their homes, fortifying their villages with rude forts for de- 
fence in case of other outbreaks. The wisdom of their precau- 
tions has been obvious, for two raids have since been made upon 
them, the last of which occurred five years since when several 
individuals were killed, and a large number of cattle driven off. 
Already nine towns, including Fountain Green, containing alto- 
gether ten thousand people, have been rebuilt, and are in a 
flourishing condition. 

The valley is forty miles in length by four or five in breadth, 
and is very productive of wheat, barley, and oats. Potatoes are 
raised in great abundance, and celebrated for their excellent 
flavor. The average grain yield of San Pete is 450,000 bushels, 
a great part of which is exported to the mines of Pioche, Tintec, 
and other districts. The chief future product of San Pete will 
be its coal, already attracting much attention, and promising 
great results. 

After dinner we rode from Fountain Green, on the west side 
of the valley, south to the small collier hamlet called Wales. 
This is an absolutely monogamous Mormon town. There had 
been a feeble attempt on the part of the male members to intro- 
duce polygamy, but the women so rudely handled the intruders 
on their domestic peace, that the men surrendered uncondition- 
ally, and now the single broomstick reigns supreme. No woman 
has presumed to dispute the sway of a rightful wife since the last 
audacious hussy was mounted on a rail, and carried by these 



SAN PETE VALLEY. 221 

Amazons down to the meadows, where she was dumped and left 
to find her own way out of the neighborhood. 

A kind old Welsh couple took us into their little log hut of two 
rooms, giving us the best. There were holes in the roof, the 
sides and the floor, thus affording plenty of ventilation without 
windows. Mrs. Price told us heart-rending tales of the poverty 
they had endured before they were now so comfortably situated. 
Her husband had been superintendent of a colliery in Wales, 
with a good salary which he had abandoned for the sake of his 
religion. 

" I've often wondered," remarked the thoughtful old woman 
" why we couldn't have been Mormons in Wales as well as 
here, and had some comfort in life besides what we get in 
religion. They talk about coming to these holy mountains — well, 
and aren't there mountains there too, and don't they belong to 
the Lord just as much ? " 

She did not see the advantages of martyrdom. She had ex- 
perienced it enough not to yearn after more, and she was the 
first emigrant we had found in all Utah who was willing candidly 
to confess that she was sorry she had come, and would now pre- 
fer to be living in her old home. 

In the morning we rode up to the principal coal mine in the 
canon, three miles behind the village. The president of the 
company, the secretary, the treasurer and the superintendent, 
were all living together in a comfortable log cabin, serving them 
for sleeping, cooking meals, store-room, offices of their various 
departments, and other general purposes. 

They received us very politely and escorted us further up the 
canon to the place where the works are in active progress, ex- 
plaining all matters of interest by the way. 

The veins are distinctly traced for seven and three-quarters 



22 2 ^-^^ ROUND TRIP. 

miles. It is a solid stratum of five feet and eight inches, en- 
closed in flat limestone walls, and running into the mountain at 
a pitch of twenty degrees. Along this incline they have run a 
shaft two hundred and fifty feet, and from various points have 
drifted tunnels of from four hundred and fifty to six hundred 
feet. Sixty men are now employed at the works. The actual 
cost of mining is $2.50 per ton, and it is sold at $4 on the dump. 
The coke is made at the mouth of the canon, and the full cost of 
it there turned out is $4 per ton. It cannot probably be made 
for less in Pennsylvania. 



VILLAGES IN THE SAN PETE VALLEY. 223 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

• 

Towns and Villages in the San Pete Valley — German 
Preaching — Providing Tabernacles for Disembodied 
Spirits — Brigham Young's Journey — The Mountain 
Meadow Massacre^Life and Character of the Apostle 
George A. Smith. 

We left the hospitable mud thatch of Mr, Price at Wales on 
a lovely Sunday afternoon. Sabbath, it might more appropri- 
ately be termed, for all animate and inanimate nature seemed to 
be at rest. The slow pace of our lazy ponies was so near to a 
standstill that so far as using them is considered, we could not 
be accused of breaking the commandment, for they certainly did 
no work. 

As for ourselves, we did not " sit under " any preacher, but on 
our saddles we sat under the smiles of the great Creator, who 
made such days as this for the enjoyment of his creatures. 

Descending the bench sloping from the western mountains, 
the little villages of Mount Pleasant, Spring City, Maroni, and 
Ephraim were in full view on the eastern side of the valley, their 
green orchards variegating the sage brush deserts. The towns 
were all abandoned and destroyed when the Indians ravaged the 
valleys of San Pete, Sevier, and the surrounding country. Their 



2 24 "^^^^ ROUXD TRIP. 

present condition evinces the energy' the settlers have displayed 
in rebuilding their homes. 

The forts they have constructed are not unlike many old 
European fortresses of the middle ages, being provided with loop- 
holes for rifle shooting, as those were for the use of bows and 
arrows. This is quite sufficient, as the Indians are unprovided 
with artiller}', though some of them have been furnished by 
greedy and unscrupulous traders with the best Henry rifles. We 
occasionally met bands of them armed in this way and belted 
with metal cartridges. 

These fellows, although now peaceable perforce, carry in 
their devilish faces the inclination to pull the triggers of their 
fancy weapons whenever they can do so with impunity. Most 
of them, however, are but rudely armed, some still carrj-ing old 
flint-locks, and not a few relying upon their original bows and 
arrows. But the same disposition is left in them all to use what- 
ever will ser\-e the purpose of getting a white man's scalp. 

It was but twelve miles' travel from Wales to Ephraim, the 
most southern town of importance in the valley. As we came 
down from the western bench we passed over three miles of 
river bottom watered by the San Pete, a narrow, sluggish stream 
tapped by irrigating ditches several miles above. The villages 
on the benches are watered, and their gardens made produc- 
tive, by the torrents from the canons, while the farming lands 
are spread over the rich bottoms of the meadows. 

The cattle either find pasturage on the benches and in the 
canons or are herded on the low lands. Ephraim contains about 
1,700 inhabitants. As we entered it on this quiet Sunday even- 
ing, it would have seemed like a city of the dead had it not been 
too beautiful for such a melancholy idea. 

The Mormons believe in spirits of the air. These might 



VILLAGES ly THE SAX PETE VALLEY. 22- 

have been dwelling here unseen. They could not have had a 
more heavenly home oa earth. Lovely as were the many \'il- 
lages we had seen, this last one, with its neat cottages, and streets 
shaded by long lines of trees, with not a sound to break the still- 
ness, but that of the running roadside streams, and the setting 
sun gilding the snowy mountains in its background, leaves in our 
memon,- one of the fairest pictures of the journey. 

At last the herd boys came driving in their cows, and the 
blowing of their horns, the tinkling of the bells, and the lowing 
of the cattle awakened the little town from its dreamy repose. A 
few people came out from their cottages and leaned listlessly 
over the fences. From one of them we obtained a direction to 
the inn. 

Ephraira is almost entirely settled by Danes and Germans. 
In the evening we attended the " meeting " in a large, taste- 
fully built church. It stands in the centre of the stone fort, 
presenting a formidable appearance, surrounded by walls and 
bastions. The preaching might have been in Danish so far 
as it conveyed any instruction to us. Few of the speakers had 
pure English at command, but they all seemed to comprehend 
each other with the same accustomed facility with which we 
understand '* Pigeon English " in China. The churcb does not 
encourage the continuance of old national habits or language in 
Utah. Therefore the new comers are required to speak in 
English as best they can. 

Now and then we could make out a little of the discourse. 
In descanting upon the " United Order " which Brigham Young 
was laboring to introduce, one of the brethren observed, " Ven 
de Presdent tell vat he tinks am recht, I vas alvays know das ist 
recht : who vas ever know him tell lie ? If angel vas coom 
down from himmel and vas say something diffrent, I moost 



2 26 THE ROUND TRIP. 

believe der angel vas lie. Cause vy ? Vasn't ter duyvil fix him- 
self up like angel mit shnake's face and coom to ter garten mit 
Adam and Eve and tell 'em lies ? Brigham Young is ter great 
prophet. I don't believe vat all de priests in de voorld say agin 
him. He is yoost like Lijah ven he shtand oop agin der vier 
hoonderdundfumfsig prophets von Baal, and beat dem all." 

The next day I had a pleasant talk with Bishop Peterson. 
He is the " husband of one wife " and several more. He looked 
upon polygamy as a hardship but a duty, expressing not only a 
perfect willingness but a wish that the question might be fairly 
tried by the supreme court. If the law of 1862 and the Poland 
bill are declared to be constitutional he will cheerfully refrain 
from being married again. In fact he would be glad of an 
excuse for not complying any longer with revealed orders, when 
the orders of the Government legally enforced, oppose them. 
The mind of the bishop must now be relieved. 

One of the Mormon theories being that the air is full of dis- 
embodied spirits in want of earthly habitations in which to do 
penance for their sins, in order to obtain salvation, our good 
friend has hitherto considered it his duty to "provide taber- 
inacles " for them to enter. He who provides the greatest 
number of fabernacles is instrumental in saving the greatest 
number of distressed spirits, and is accordingly a benefactor to 
the spirit world, deserving of the highest exaltation. 

This is a man's excuse for polygamy. The woman gains for 
herself also exaltations in proportion to the tabernacles pro- 
duced. This glorious hope of the future reconciles her to the 
humiliation of her condition, to the mere participation of her 
husband's affection, to a small share in his property, to jealousy, 
heatt-burnings, domestic quarrels, and all the unmentionable 
miseries of this damnable system. It is true that Brigham 
Young urged it only upon those men who think that they are 



VILLAGES IN THE SAN PETE VALLEY. 227 

able to support more than one family, and upon those women 
only who think that they will be happy in the relation. But I 
have not yet seen one man who has become richer by polygamy 
while I have met hundreds who were impoverished by it, nor in 
all the families we visited in our extended tour, where the sub- 
ject is always broached by the Mormon women themselves, 
have there been found but three individuals among them who 
claimed to be happy. 

Bishop Peterson gave us an interesting narrative of the 
Indian raids and the consequent sufferings of the settlers who, 
unable to defend themselves, sought shelter in the rocky fast- 
nesses of the mountains. 

The United States Government afforded them not the 
slightest aid. The bishop observed, with no more bitterness 
than was warranted by the fact, that the only troops sent to 
Utah came as enemies, not as friends to the Mormons. He 
thought it unreasonable in the Government to exercise control 
over their social relations, while it treated them as a separate 
and distinct people by leaving them to fight their own battles. 

We were taken into the large co-operative store, and told 
with pride of the great dividend of sixty per cent, declared last 
year. This seems enormous, but it is really nothing more than 
the taking out of one pocket and putting into the other. Almost 
every purchaser is a stockholder. If he gets sixty per cent, 
dividends — always, by the bye, payable in goods — it is only be- 
cause he pays sixty per cent, too much for all that he buys. The 
system varies from a high tariff policy, inasmuch as the people 
who pay the high duties that make high prices do not receive 
again the profits. These go into the pockets of monopolists. 
The Utah farmer pays himself back. The people of the United 
States pay manufacturing corporations. That is the difference. 



228 THE ROUND TRIP. 

In a succeeding chapter will be found a relation of the 
experience of travel from the little town of Ephraim to the 
southern point of our journey. Among the places worthy of 
remembrance on the route, Richfield, the county town of Sevier 
valley, is most prominent. The valley, fifty miles long, watered 
by the river of the same name, is easily irrigated, and although 
it has not been under cultivation until recently, has abundant 
promise for the future. 

We happened to be in Richfield, as in Gunnison, at the same 
time with Brigham Young and his party of about twenty persons, 
on their way to " Dixie," as the extreme south of Utah is termed. 

The imperial crowd being entitled to the best hospitalities of 
the people, unbelieving Gentiles could expect but poor accom- 
modations unless they chose to attach themselves to the suite. 
Brigham himself was very ill, making no public appearances on 
the route, and although we were acquainted with several of the 
elders who accompanied him, we kept aloof from their society, as 
their journey was a sort of religious procession of praying and 
preaching in which we were not especially interested. 

When notice was given that he was expected in a settlement 
on his line of march, a cavalcade went out to meet him, and when 
he departed he was escorted in the same way until met by other 
horsemen. The poor old gentleman could only look from a 
window of his carriage and thank them with a silent blessing. 
It was perhaps his last journey. Thirty years ago, in his full 
vigor of mind and body, he made his entrance through the wild 
Emigration canon into what is now the fruitful United States Ter- 
ritory of Utah. 

Then it was a Mexican desert, uninhabited, save by roving 
savages, unproductive of a blade of wheat. He had now left the 
city whose foundations he then laid. More than a hundred miles 



THE MOUNTAIN MEADOW MASSACRE. 229 

north of it the country is already thickly peopled, and as he 
travelled through these valleys three hundred miles to the south, 
he beheld thousands of acres that had just yielded a bountiful 
harvest, thousands of cattle and sheep grazing upon them, and in 
the hills, orchards, and gardens, lovely villages, and above all 
tens of thousands of happy, industrious people settled in these 
towns and on their farms, every one of whom was indebted to his 
energy and foresight. 

I cannot yet comprehend his character. I cannot believe that 
a man of his astuteness could have been totally led away by the 
delusions of Joseph Smith, nor can I think that one of his 
unswerving fidelity to the religion he embraced, maintained and 
successfully propagated was a consummate hypocrite. At all 
events I am persuaded that he became at last convinced of his 
own sincerity. He looked upon the end of his labors as justify- 
ing the means taken to achieve the grand result. 

There have been committed in the early years of the settle- 
ment by the Mormons, single murders rivalling in atrocity those 
now perpetrated in the mining camps with horrible frequency by 
Gentiles ; but to reproach the Mormons as a people with whole- 
sale atrocities as premeditated, or to accuse Brigham Young of 
instigating them, are slanders worthy only of those who invent 
them and sustain them for base political ends. 

The Mountain Meadow massacre, a crime unparalleled in 
barbarity by either Mormon or Gentile, furnishes the chief 
ground of these accusations. I have made inquiries in every 
direction regarding this celebrated, most wretched affair, and am 
thoroughly convinced that the emigrants themselves excited the 
animosity of the Indians, who were joined by white men of 
notoriously bad character. The emigrants were butchered from 
motives of revenge and plunder. Brigham Young and the 



230 THE ROUND TRTP. 

Mormon Church had no more concern in its perpetration than 
the Pope of Rome or the Catholic Church has in any murder 
committed by nien who acknowledge their authority. 

The preaching of " blood atonement " as a doctrine of relig- 
ion in former years will forever stand against Brigham Young, 
although he long ago discontinued its advocacy. His main- 
tenance of the polygamous practice was a disgrace to his name, 
but it is contemptibly mean and unmanly to vilify him for crimes 
of which he was not guilty and to refuse him the credit due for 
the good that he accomplished. 

His conscience, unless it was perverted by fanaticism, must 
have marred the satisfaction with which he viewed the accom- 
plishment of his work. Still, it would not be wonderful if he drew 
the balance greatly in his own favor. Like the patriarchs whom 
he sought to imitate, whose good deeds were many and whose 
misdeeds were few, he was ready to depart in peace and to be 
gathered to his fathers. 

President George A. Smith, next in council to Brigham Young, 
accompanied him on this journey. Mr. Smith was my favorite 
apostle. We had often heard him preach at the Tabernacle in 
Salt Lake. His views were more liberal than those advocated by 
many of his co-religionists, and his plain, practical teachings were 
instructive to Gentiles as well as to Mormons. He was fifty- 
seven years of age, of tall, portly figure, with a face of infinite 
jollity and expressive humor. This cropped out so frequently 
that the audience always expected to be entertained when 
" Brother George A." held forth. 

His private character was without reproach, excepting on the 
score of polygamy. I do not believe all we hear of the grasping 
propensities of the heads of the Church, for on visiting Mr. 
Smith at his residence in the city, we found him living in the 



THE MORMONS. 231 

simplest manner consistent with ordinary comfort, and I scarcely 
know one of the apostles, elders, or bishops not engaged in some 
lucrative business of his own, who maintains a style above that of 
a laboring mechanic. 

Mr. Smith was the historian of Utah, He came out originally 
with Brigham Young, and his personal experiences, united with 
the material he had diligently collected from other sources, 
would make volumes of exceeding interest and entertainment. 
On the occasion of his visit to Richfield we attended the 
crowded meetings and listened to the discourses of Mr. Smith 
and several others. 

Mr. Smith told of his adventures thirty years ago, when he 
explored the south of Utah, before the idea of a settlement in 
the region was seriously entertained ; of his camping out when 
the mercury stood 19 deg. below zero: how an Indian and a 
lonely trapper stole his mule ; of the lesson he then got " never 
to trust a mule, an Indian, or an old bachelor ;" how after the 
settlement was made at Salt Lake he preceded Fremont three 
years in the exploration of this valley of San Pete ; how his party 
was snowed up for a whole winter in the neighboring mountains, 
and how under difficulties and dangers he had travelled the whole 
territory from north to south, three or four times a year, for 
several j'-ears, to get an accurate knowledge of its topography. 

Then he gave the people some very good advice : " Make the 
most of materials at hand, without procuring luxuries from 
abroad. Skin every dog or cat that dies or is killed. If that 
don't give you leather enough for shoes besides what you get 
from cattle, make the soles of wood ; wooden soles are preventi- 
tives of rheumatism. They are better than the sponge soles you 
import from the East. Raise your own sheep. Manufacture 
your own wool. Make your women useful as well as ornamental. 



232 THE ROUND TRIP. 

Work outside, and they will be encouraged to work inside. You 
have got everything you want right here at home — the best of 
land, the best of cattle, the best of religions, the best of every- 
thing. Thank God for his continual mercies. Pray to Him 
morning and evening, and at every meal. When the railroad is 
completed you can have some luxuries you cannot now procure, 
and you can pay for them in the abundant excess of your own 
productions. Pay up your tithing like good Latter-Day Saints ; 
not a particle of it shall be misappropriated. We want more 
temples for the Lord, and whatever excess there is shall go to 
bringing people from all parts of the earth to participate with 
you in your blessings. Never get into debt. When you take up 
land pay for it as soon as you can, whether obliged to do so or 
not ; for I have always noticed that people get into debt when 
they are flush and have to pay up when money is scarce. To 
those of you who were so unfortunate as to have come to this 
country with your clothes on, I would say, get clothed at once 
with all the rights of an American citizen. You have a judge in 
this district who is a just and honorable man, and who does not 
consider himself a missionary sent here expressly to convert you. 
If you are drawn on a jury don't shirk your duty. Don't lie 
before God or man. If a man is indicted for polygamy entered 
into since the law of 1862, and it is jDroved, convict him accord- 
ingly. We know that law is unconstitutional, and we can beat 
them in their own courts. Don't be nervous about it. Take a 
little valerian tea and put your trust in God. Everything will 
come out all right. Show to the world that you are a quiet, law- 
abiding people. We have stood a good deal, and we can stand 
it to the end. May every blessing attend you. I ask it of the 
Eternal Father in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen." 
We have listened to worse sermons than that. 



THE MORMONS. 233 

Soon afterwards, the whole community of Utah was saddened 
by the death of this excellent man. His history is almost as 
remarkable as that of Brighani Young. Indeed, he was the right 
hand of the head of the Church. He most sincerely believed in 
the inspiration of his cousin Joseph Smith, and from the date of 
his baptism into the Church of the Latter-Day Saints in 1832, he 
devoted unselfishly every day of his life to its interests. 

He seemed to entertain the same ideas of polygamy which, in 
a letter to me, he attributed to the founder of the sect. He says : 
"He was a rigidly moral, virtuous, and pure man, and nothing 
but a sense of the awful responsibility of disobeying the Almighty 
caused him to teach or practice a principle which increased 
manifold the responsibilities and burdens of men." A Gentile 
finds it hard to believe that duty is the motive to influence a man 
in that direction. Nevertheless, knowing the honesty of the 
writer, I can credit it in his case at least. 

I am indebted to him for many anecdotes of the early settle- 
ment of Utah. The following extract from one of his letters 
is characteristic of frontier life. 

The school-room and school library of the pioneer school- 
master teach us how education may be obtained under 
difficulties. 

*' St. George, Washington Co., Utah, 

Nov. 14. 

Dear Sir : Your letter from Cove Fort of November 7 has 
been received. I should take much pleasure in giving you the 
desired information concerning the settlements in the southern 
country, with the history of which I have been familiar from 
the beginning, were it not that my time is so much occupied with 
other duties as to render it impossible. 

I camped with my party in Cove on the 4th of January, 



234 



THE ROUND TRIP. 



1851. We ploughed the first ground and sowed the first wheat; 
built the first saw and grist mill — two hundred and twenty miles 
from any other, I taught the first school opened in the settle- 
ment 3 and some of my scholars are now the principal men in the 
county. My first grammar class of eighteen had only one book — 
a copy of Kirkham's grammar — the instruction being given by 
lectures and repetition. Our school-room was out of doors by an 
immense fire of dry cedar and pinion pine, around which we 
spent the evenings of the entire winter. 

Walker, the Ute Indian chief, who had for half the generation 
been the terror of the entire California frontier, came to our 
camp with his warriors, and we were very much pleased to find 
he was disposed to be friendly. He was mourning over the bad 
luck he had had on his last raid for stealing horses, which he 
said San Pitch, his brother, had made a failure of ; although he 
was lucky in stealing one thousand head of horses at one haul, 
he got sleepy, and the Spaniards overtook him and got back 
eight hundred of them. I persuaded Walker to quit that business, 
as the Americans had got possession of California, and they 
would surely scalp him if he continued it. Walker and his 
Indians never made a raid on California since, though they had 
made one annually for twenty-five years previous." 

Every right-minded man entertains a respect for sincerity of 
belief even in those from whom he differs in many questions 
of doctrine and practice. No one can fail to appreciate the 
practical character of this pioneer of religion for his sect, of 
civilization for his countrymen at large. The good that he has 
done will live after him in the grateful memories of many others 
besides those for whose interest his life was especially devoted. 



IMPRESSIONS OF TRA VEL IN UTAH. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Impressions of Travel in Utah upon the Female Mind— The 
Storm in Clear Creek Canon — Cove Fort — The Ute 
Indians — Angutseeds and Kanosh — On the Way to the 
North — Fillmore — Scipio — Lost on the Desert — The 
Tintec Mines — Return to Salt Lake City. 

As it is my desire to introduce some of the readers of these 
notes to follow upon our tracks, ladies will appreciate my candor 
if I enable them to form an idea how travelling in these regions 
strikes the female mind. With this purpose I introduce a 
familiar letter from my wife to her daughter which has the merit 
and the interest of not being intended for publication. It is fair 
to say that the inconveniences experienced were unusual, and 
that they were endured with patience and fortitude, and that their 
recollection has afforded an enjoyment corresponding to the 
difficulty of surmounting them. 

" Cove Fort, November 9. 

My Dear : We made a delightful journey on horse- 
back of about a hundred miles from Provo. As I am not able 
to ride comfortably more than twenty-five miles a day, in order 
to gain time and to obtain the least uncomfortable lodgings on 



236 THE ROUND TRIP. 

the road, whenever there is an opportunity I shall avail myself of 
the mail carrier's conveyance. Your father meantime will lead 
my horse or fasten him to the wagon. 

In this way we started from Ephraim on Monday afternoon, 
for Gunnison, the most southern town in San Pete valley, on the 
Indian reservation, and distant twenty-five miles. The stage 
proved to be a rickety open wagon with two seats. 

The country was very barren and uninteresting — sage-brush 
plains, with low hills. We passed a settlement called Manti 
about half-past six o'clock. Here we changed horses, and I had 
a cup of tea, made in a miserable adobe cabin, which warmed 
and made me more comfortable for the next two hours. Your 
father rode his horse, and mine was led by the side of the horses 
of the wagon. 

I had for a companion from Manti to Gunnison an Irishman 
named Reed, an educated man, who was converted and came to 
this country some twelve years ago. He told me that I was the 
first " outsider " that he had seen during that time. From the 
bitterness with which he spoke of England's course towards 
Ireland, I fancy that his discontentment drove him out West. 
Here he embraced this religion and provided himself with an 
extra wife. 

We reached Gunnison about half-past eight o'clock. It was 
very dark, but it appeared to us a very small collection of houses, 
and we found to our dismay that Brigham Young, with some of 
his family and friends, on their way south to St. George, had 
arrived and occupied every house. At last we found a Danish 
cobbler who consented with some reluctance to take us in his 
little adobe cabin of two rooms. 

While your father attended to the horses and to the arrange- 
ments for the next day, Mr. Ludwigsohn made a great fire in 



IMPRESSIOA^S OF TRAVEL IN UTAH. 237 

the " living room," and his wife being out, I surveyed the 
premises, while my heart sank within me. A very small room, 
with one bed and filled with chests and hanging clothes evidently 
of Danish manufacture, and with that indescribable odor acquired 
by age, sea voyage, and travel — this apartment was intended 
to accomodate Mr. and Mrs. Ludwigsohn, two children, a young 
brother and sister, and ourselves, while the " living room " had 
a double settee for the use of three Mormon brothers who had 
come from the next settlement to meet President Young. I felt 
quite desperate, and suggested to Mr. Ludwigsohn that we might 
occupy the settee in the " living room, " and not disturb the 
rest of the family, as the stage would leave at four o'clock in the 
morning, and we should not sleep much at any rate. His wife 
soon came in, and with four children and the four men, their 
little room was very full. She gave us some bread and milk, 
made up the settee with clean sheets and blankets, and then 
went away to nurse a sick woman. 

After discussing as usual their religious tenets, the father, 
four children, and three men went into the bedroom. Where or 
how they slept I cannot say. We kept up the wood fire all 
night, for it was very cold, and of course I could not undress ; 
but I rolled myself up in my plaid, and actually slept well. 

At four in the morning we arose, and your father arranged the 
horses, one to saddle and the other to lead. Pretty Mrs. Lud- 
wigsohn returned from her sick friend and gave us some bread 
and milk. The stage, a light spring cart for mail carriage, 
arriving, I mounted by the side of the driver, a young Dane, and 
we started in the darkness of the early morning. 

The country was barren and desolate, a valley with abrupt hills 
on each side. We were three hours driving to Salinas, a most 
forlorn, wretched looking collection of huts. Here we stopped 



238 "^HE ROUND TRIP. 

to breakfast, having driven fifteen miles. " Dirty " would not 
express the condition of the hut in which we breakfasted, or of 
the woman who ruled there and her six children. To do it 
justice I must reserve it for oral description. Suffice it to say, I 
did breakfast on tea, eggs, and bread and butter, while trying to 
be oblivious of the surroundings. 

The unfortunate people of this settlement had been driven 
away many times by the Indians, who seven years ago made a 
raid upon them and stole everything, cattle, horses, grain, etc., 
leaving them absolutely destitute. So much excuse can be made 
for their poverty, but not much for their filth. 

On leaving Salinas we found ourselves in Sevier valley, and 
after driving some three miles came to a gully in the road, about 
ten feet deep, called Lost Creek. Here the driver advised me 
to jump out, as, he remarked, " Wagons generally upset in this 
mean hollow." I did not require a second suggestion, but jumped 
out over the wheel. Down went the horses, down went the 
wagon over the holes and rocks at the bottom, not wrecked, but 
stranded. Your father and the driver were obliged to unharness 
the horses, pull up the wagon, and finally succeeded in righting 
the whole concern upon the opposite bank without other damage 
than breaking the bit of the led pony. Meanwhile I was in high 
spirits, as I had been saved from the agony of going down with 
the horses and wagon. 

We continued our road on the east side of the valley, follow- 
ing the foot hills for seven miles, when we entered a mountain 
pass called the "Twist," which exceeded all the roads I had 
ever heard of for misery. It was originally an Indian trail wind- 
ing round and about the foot of little hills, and had been much 
washed away by the late storm. Sometimes the right wheel 
would be on a high bank and the left wheel in a deep rut ; then 



lAfPRESSlOiVS OF TRA VEL IN UTAH. 239 

these conditions would be reversed. The descents were not long, 
but nearly perpendicular, and the wagon jumped up and down 
and swayed about like a ship in a heavy sea. 

This state of things continued for five or six miles, during 
which time I said many prayers. We reached Glenwood, a small 
settlement, about twelve o'clock, and I entered the postmaster's 
house to warm myself. His wife opened the mail-bag, and I had 
much quiet amusement at the distribution of the letters. Four 
or fiv^e children assisted ; the baby played with the postal cards, 
and the odd letters were put away in a stocking box. We dined 
with these people, and then drove across to the west side of the 
valley, to a settlement called Richfield, making our day's journey 
thirty-seven miles. 

We found this small town in great excitement, awaiting the 
arrival of President Young. I had risen at four o'clock that 
morning, and now sat in the wagon waiting for shelter until six 
o'clock in the evening, when Judge Morrison, the postmaster, 
coming into the village with the President, kindly offered his 
hospitality. His wife was down south on a visit, but her four 
small children, fourteen, ten, eight, and five years of age, were 
keeping house. The Judge lived on the next block with another 
Mrs. Morrison. 

This lady came round and arranged a bed for us, while we 
took entire possession of the sitting-room, lighting a great wood 
fire. Although I found a Miss Morrison aged eight doing the 
family washing in a tub much larger than herself, and with a 
washboard of about her own size, I doubted her capacity for 
cooking, and we gladly accepted the proposal of Mrs. Morrison 
No. 2, to take our meals at her house. We remained one day 
in Richfield to recruit. 

Our next journey being forty miles through the mountain 



240 THE ROUND TRIP. 

pass of the Sevier, and through the famous Clear Creek canon, 
I did not venture to attempt it on horseback, and your father 
engaged Judge Morrison to carry me through in a light spring 
wagon, and to lead my horse. 

We accordingly left Richfield on Friday morning at nine 
o'clock. The wind commenced to blow on the previous after- 
noon, and howled and whistled all night, filling me with many 
forebodings for our journey. Although it still continued very 
strong in the morning, the clouds seemed to follow the ranges of 
mountains on each side of the valley, and we hoped for a clear 
day. We should have started at seven o'clock for a forty miles 
mountain journey in these short days, but the Judge is one of 
those unfortunate men who leave their properties and belongings 
out of repair, trusting that the Providence of the shiftless will 
carry them through every necessity and danger. His horses he 
represented as fine animals, but they proved to be unfitted for 
travelling, having been used entirely for ploughing and teaming. 

We drove down the valley, twelve miles over a level plain of 
sage-brush, to a wretched-looking hamlet of adobe huts, called 
Joseph City, situated at the extremity of the Sevier valley. The 
wind, although very strong, was from the south, and not as 
piercing as it might have been from another direction, but it was 
in our faces and very uncomfortable. After leaving Joseph City 
we turned to the west, making our way over and through the foot 
hills at the edge of the mountains, following the windings of the 
Sevier river. 

At one o'clock we arrived after four hours' driving, at the 
entrance of the mountain pass called Clear Creek canon. Here 
we found a camp of teamsters and a fire, and we stopped to rest 
and feed the horses and to lunch. While thus occupied the sun 
disappeared behind a gray bank of clouds that loomed over the 



IMPRESSIONS OF TRAVEL IN UTAH 241 

mountains. Very soon came some premonitory drops, and before 
we could get on the wagon cover and attach the horses, we were 
overtaken by a heavy rain. There was no shelter and no course 
before iis but to proceed and face the storm, which now descended 
the sides of the opposite mountain in driving sheets of sleet. 

The mountains were very high and the passage narrow, allow- 
ing room for only the creek and the road j and as we slowly as- 
cended, winding about, the wind fiercely facing us at every turn, 
the rain changed to snow, and we soon found ourselves in a 
whirling tempest of rain, sleet, snow, hail, and wind, while the 
howling, near and distinct, of some wolves on the mountain gave 
us an intimation of our probable fate, should any disaster befall 
the horses or vehicle. 

Still we plodded on, urging our horses to their best ; the 
scenery, at all times grand, magnificent, sublime, under such cir- 
cumstances became really terrible. Sometimes we were covered 
with snow, then the sleet would come, and it would change to 
ice, and my wraps were frozen stiff about me ; the rain and the 
snow dripped over me, and I was wet through. Your father 
galloped on to keep himself from freezing, as he had no shelter, 
even of a wagon cover. Unfortunately the Judge had omitted 
to bring strings for the cover, and it could not be secured at the 
sides ; the wind, coming in great gusts, would raise it, frozen 
and stiff as it was, and shake it until it seemed sometimes as if 
we should be carried off in the whirlwind. 

Each turn made the scene more grand and more fearful. The 

famous gap in the mountains, where they rise in great palisades 

of rock on each side, is a perfect wonder of nature, and the 

entire pass, twenty miles in lengtli, in sunshiny weather must be 

of surpassing beauty ; but as we were exposed to the tempest, 

the moments seemed hours, and the hours were long. 

16 



242 THE ROUND TRIP. 

At every turn we made, new mountains seemed to block our 
path, and when we vainly hoped the summit had been reached, 
the little brook would come gurgling down as if to mock our 
anxious hearts. 

It was twenty minutes to five o'clock when we really reached 
the summit. The storm had then abated a little, but the day- 
light was almost gone, and we had long and steep descents of 
nearly six miles before we could reach the valley and the shelter 
of Cove Fort. Judge Morrison did not know the road, and it 
soon became so dark that we were obliged to trust to the horses. 
Your father took the lead, and we followed in the wagon. It was 
ten hours since we started from Richfield, and for five of the ten 
I had been exposed to the driving storm ; and now again there 
gathered and broke over us a tempest of wind, hail, and rain, 
and I was quite broken down and in despair. I thought we 
must surely perish in the darkness, when a shout from your 
father and a stream of light from an open door proved to us that 
we had at last found a refuge in Cove Fort." 

I doubt not that the writer for the occasion, in depicting the 
adventure happily ending at Cove Fort, has convinced those of 
her sex who may propose to follow her through Utah, that there 
are some inconveniences and possible dangers in the way. 

There are truly many annoyances and some perils quite un- 
avoidable on a journey like this, but these as well as the enjoy- 
able incidents work up admirably into winter drawing-room tales. 
In this case, leaving out of the account the feminine trials, which 
must draw sympathy from feminine hearts, there was not a little 
in the passage through the canon in the wild storm and the dark- 
ness of the night that made the danger far from imaginary. 

With an inexperienced guide, a pair of broken-down horses, 
a treacherous road covered with snow, alternate gusts of snow 



FORT COVE. 243 

hail, and rain, the freezing of garments until they became 
stiff as boards, no habitation within many miles — these were 
circumstances in which no lady would care to be placed for the 
purpose of enjoying scenery. 

For my own part, as I ranged along ahead on horseback, 
hoping to discover some place where we might find shelter, the 
pelting hail blinding my eyes, I had little leisure, inclination, or 
opportunity to gaze about at the wonders of this grand defile. In 
one instance only, and that lasting but a moment, as I rode upon 
the narrow track by the side of the torrent, where the chasm at 
most was fifty feet wide, did the storm relent, so that I could 
look aloft two thousand feet, where the overhanging cliffs came 
so closely together that the leaden sky made but a thin strip 
overhead. 

Fort Cove was built by the Mormons twelve years ago, for a 
place of refuge, when the Indians were committing their depre- 
dations. Now it was a welcome refuge for us. A family is 
maintained here for the purpose of affording entertainment to 
travellers, many of whom pass this way on their road to the south 
and to Nevada. We paid little attention to its massive walls 
and battlements when' we arrived, but the blaze sent out by the 
cheerful fire upon our dark surroundings, as the door was thrown 
open, warmed our hearts with gratitude to those who had pro- 
vided this asylum. 

The idea of building the fort and afterward devoting it to its 
present purpose originated with Brigham Young. As we took 
possession of the room he had vacated in the morning, we prayed 
the good Lord to forgive him his sins and to put this good work 
to his credit in account. 

In the morning we took a survey of the fortress. It stands 
at the outlet of the Sevier pass, through which we travelled 



244 ^-^^ ROUND TRIP. 

the previous night. There is a lofty background of moun- 
tains in the east, an extinct volcano on the south ; on the north 
and the west are spread out the extensive plains of Dog valley, 
the Beaver range looming up twenty-five miles beyond. The 
walls of the fort are of solid limestone, eighteen feet high and 
one hundred feet each side of its square. It is not intended for 
a defence against artillery, but opposed to a moderate cannon- 
ading, it would stand for a long time. 

The Indian outbreaks which have three times within the last 
twelve years partially desolated the neighboring settlements, may 
possibly recur, and Fort Cove revert to its original use. The 
ferocity of the untamable Indian nature is liable to crop out at any 
moment. Should one of them be killed in a quarrel, or even 
accidentally, a general raid on the peaceful farmers will be likely 
to ensue, and murder, rape, and arson will follow in its train. It 
is well that this place of refuge remains, to which men, women, 
and children may flee from the wrath to come. 

Here the Mormons have tried to domesticate a few of the 
' Utes. Last year they began the experiment mildly by breaking 
up the land and planting wheat for them, only requiring the lazy 
aborigines to take off their own crops. Unfortunately an early 
frost killed the wheat. The Indians attributed this to the Divine 
displeasure at their abandonment of their primitive habits, and 
consequently very few of the half-tamed creatures will be induced 
to try it again. 

Angutseeds — Red Ant — is the chief of this tribe of Utes. He 
is a friend of the whites, and possesses considerable influence 
not only over his immediate dependents, but with the other tribes 
in southern Utah. 

This instance will show how a great war may arise from a 
trifling provocation. Fourteen or fifteen years ago a chief, the 



THE UTE INDIANS. 245 

notorious Black Hawk, went to a person at St. Peter's, with 
whom some flour had been left for him by the Indian agent. The 
man was drunk, and whipped Black Hawk. The chief took re- 
venge by murdering a herdsman. The herdsman's friends killed 
another Indian, and these murders originated a war which lasted 
three years and cost $1,500,000 and numerous lives. 

Red Ant did all in his power to restrain the others, but 
was in this case unsuccessful. In several instances he has 
prevented quarrels which might have had equally fatal results. 
Tamaritz — White Horse chief, who sometimes calls himself 
Chenowicket — " saved by Almighty power " — is another celeb- 
rity among the Utes, with whom the settlers are now on friendly 
terms. 

" Ah," said the bishop, who gave us many Indian incidents, 
" we have had a hard time in keeping peace as well as in fight- 
ing these Lamanites, but our greatest enemies have been the 
white men, for they have always been the aggressors. We ask 
no aid from the Government, only this — let it keep its agents 
away." 

Formerly the Moquis tribe was powerful in these regions. 
They had a civilization of their own, living partly in towns. At 
Richfield some ruins of their dwellings were pointed out, and 
we picked up some specimens of their crockery which proved 
that they were advanced in manufacturing skill far beyond the 
Indians of the present day. Two or three hundred years ago, 
after many bloody battles, they were finally driven beyond the 
Colorado, by the victorious Utes. 

The Navajos still remaining in Utah, like all the other tribes 
nomadic in their habits, are wonderfully proficient in weaving 
cloth. We purchased some of their blankets, beautifully woven 
in variegated colors, and perfectly impervious to water. The 



246 THE ROUND TRIP. 

mills of Manchester or Lowell have never produced anything of 
the kind that can equal them. 

Beaver lies twenty-five miles south of Cove Fort. We 
intended to continue our tour to that town, having travelled 
already two hundred and forty miles in a southerly direction 
from Salt Lake, but the shocking condition of the roads, and 
the prospects of more inclement weather, were considerations 
inducing us to return from this point. 

The homeward route led us over an entirely different ground. 
We now returned by way of the valleys on the west of the ranges, 
which had been upon our right. 

Twenty-five miles from Cove Fort are the two adjoining 
nominally Indian settlements of Corn Creek and Kanosh. In 
the former we made a short stay for dinner. Kanosh is sup- 
posed to be the dwelling place of the chief of that name. Here 
he owns an adobe hut where he keeps a squaw, while he ranges 
the mountains and valleys in an independent way, on his own 
account. 

Kanosh is a devout Mormon. He preaches to his tribe " to 
love God, and not to drink whiskey, or tea and coffee ; to love 
God because he is good, to hate whiskey because it is bad, and 
to abstain from tea and coffee because they are dear." Not a 
bad Indian that. General Sheridan, after all ! 

Fillmore, once the seat of the territorial government is a 
pretty village of two thousand inhabitants. The town and the 
county of Millard, of which it is the capital, were both named n 
in honor of the President, who was in ofBce at the time of their 
settlement. Fillmore is about forty miles north of Cove Fort. 
The road approaching it from the south is dreary, and possesses 
no attractions beyond those of the sublime mountains that ever 
wall the sides of our way. An old volcano looms up in the west, 



SCIPIO. 247 

'A'hich has been an active operator in its day. Immense blocks 
of lava are strewn for many miles over the plain, and from the 
mountain side there runs far to the north a black wall once a 
stream of fire. 

There is a good hotel at Fillmore, its chief attraction. Re- 
freshed by its excellent larder, we pursued our way the next 
morning, making a short day's journey of twenty-eight miles, to 
Scipio. This is a wretched little hamlet, looking more wretched 
still after passing through Holden, an American settlement, 
where the houses are all of frame or brick, and the appearance 
of the people emphatically what is called " well-to-do." 

Scipio, if he is an uneasy spirit, wandering about in the hope 
that some polygamist will provide him with a "tabernacle," 
must wonder why his name was disgraced by attaching it to this 
little collection of Danish hovels. It is better to be a spirit of 
the air than to live in any tabernacle here. 

The situation is as charming as can be imagined. In the 
centre of a green meadow, aptly called Round valley, it is closely 
circled by a range of high mountains, a tiara of snow now crown- 
ing their summits. We were almost inclined to camp in the 
streets of the village, but the uncertainty of the weather obliged 
us to seek lodgings under some roof. 

The bishop was not at home, and the bishopess (if we may 
coin a new name) No. i was notable to accommodate us, as she 
had a large family of children requiring all her room. She said 
that she knew of no other place where we could find shelter. 
Here was an illustration of polygamous jealousy, for we after- 
ward discovered that bishopess No. 2 had one of the best houses 
in the village, small, it is true, but tolerably comfortable. 

This more amiable young woman gave us a room, and with 
her sister joined us in a game of cards. Occasionally the poor 



248 THE ROUAW TRIP. 

little bisliopess would start at any noise from the outside, with 
evident fear that the virago was coming in upon us. It is not 
unlikely that when their joint head came home she was made to 
suffer for hospitality to unbelieving Gentiles. 

On the following day we went on through Juab valley, stop- 
ping at a small village called Chicken Creek. Here a young 
gentleman, who was tending sheep, informed us that he came 
from " loway " two years ago. " Father," he said, " told us all 
along the road that we was coming to Zion. Well, this is the 
cussedest old Zion I ever want to see. I'd rather have a foot of 
ground in lowaj^, than all these here mountings of the Lord, and 
I guess the Lord would too if he had ever seen loway ! " After 
riding forty miles from Scipio, we reached Nephi in the evening. 

In the morning we turned from the main road with the pur- 
pose of visiting the Tintec valley and mining camps. There is 
scarcely a mountain in Utah where silver may not be found. 
There are mines of low grade ore in the immediate vicinity of 
Nephi on Mt. Nebo- These will not yield any profit until fuel 
becomes cheaper, but at some future day their value will be 
assured. The Tintec mines being of a higher grade, and mostly 
producing milling ore, are not so dependent upon the cost of 
coal and coke. 

We had been rather unfortunate in being misguided on more 
than one occasion. This time a young man was also going on 
horseback to Tintec. He knew the trail perfectly. He had 
driven cattle across frequently. It was eighteen miles to the 
Miller and Shoebridge mills. He knew it. No, he did not. 

We started under favorable circumstances, for it was a 
glorious day. Crossing the divide, we looked back through the 
narrow vista formed by the precipitous cliffs, upon the lofty 
summit of Mt. Nebo, and then descended into a valley, between 



LOST ON THE DESERT. 249 

which and Tintec there is an intermediate range. Had the in- 
telligence of our guide equalled his professions, we might have 
crossed tlie narrow plain of separation and entered a romantic 
canon that would have speedily led us through into the valley be- 
yond. But he chose to follow a wagon track, the course lead- 
ing far to the south in order to cross the spur of the mountains. 
We travelled on over a broad expanse for hours, until this point 
was reached. Then rounding it, we made our way again to the 
north. 

'' I guess we'll get out of this now and take a short cut across 
the sage-brush," said Mr. Daniels. Short cut ! We wandered on 
till the sun, having long ago passed his meridian, descended 
over the western peaks and left us in approaching darkness on a 
desert waste, where there was no water for ourselves or for our 
animals, no sign of a habitation, and no hope of any other 
covering at night than could be found under the threatening 
clouds. 

Our intelligent leader had lost his way. He was evidently 
uncertain if Tintec was in this valley or the valley beyond. We 
shot a jack rabbit, and proposed soon to camp and to make our 
supper of this providential supply. Just as we were about to 
resort to that necessity we fortunately struck the wagon road 
again. Encouraged with new hope, we pushed our thirsty 
animals along, and were soon overjoyed at beholding the smoke 
from the chimneys of the Miller and the Shoebridge mills. 
Arriving there after this tedious journey of thirty-five miles, we 
were welcomed, without letters of introduction, by Superin- 
tendent Lusk and Secretary Berkley of the latter establish- 
ment. 

Captain Lusk is an old sailor, and I felt immediately at home 
with one of my own profession, from which no one has ever 



250 THE ROUND TRIP. 

withheld the credit of generous hospitality. We shall always 
cherish with gratitude the kindness with which he attended to 
our necessities, providing us with a substantial supper, feeding 
our horses, and then, as his accommodations were limited, 
though freely at our disposal, in consideration of my wife's 
fatigue from her long ride of thirty-five miles, sending her in his 
buggy six miles further, to Diamond City. 

Diamond City, a Incus a non /uceiido, as it appeared to us when 
coming out from the hotel of Mrs. Jones in the morning, is the 
chief mining camp of Tintec. There are others. Silver City and 
Eureka, rivalling Diamond City in splendor and architectural 
magnificence. They are alike in the style of their bar-rooms and 
in the quality of their " tanglefoot." They all do a good busi- 
ness, and yet they are the most quiet mining camps we have 
seen. 

Perhaps the hard journey of the previous day gave us sounder 
sleep than we usually enjoyed, but certainly we were not dis- 
turbed by conventional noises in the streets, nor by the shrill 
music and the loud stamping of the dance-houses. It was 
several days since a murder had been committed. 

It is asserted that the ore of these mines averages in value 
$75 per ton at the dump. If ten dollars be assumed as the cost 
of getting it out and hauling it to mill, where it is converted into 
bullion at twenty-five more, there is a profit of forty dollars on 
every ton. 

But let not the reader be so sanguine as to come immediately 
to Tintec for the purpose of making his fortune. There are 
heavy expenses in continual development, great cost of shafts, 
tunnels, and timbering. Sometimes there is a "pinch," and the 
vein for many days, perhaps weeks, is nearly lost ; and then 
there are many other contingencies, expected and unexpected, 



THE TINTEC MINES. 251 

that should enter into the calculations. The forty dollars sutfer 
many subtractions. 

Division is the safest mode of arithmetic in mining calcula- 
tion. You are shown a mine that will, beyond all doubt, allow- 
ing for every thing, give you forty per cent, annually on your in- 
vestment. Divide this by two. Result, twenty per cent. To be 
a little more sure, divide it again. Result, ten per cent. Keep 
on with your division for still greater security — for there is 
nothing like being perfectly safe — until you get down to zero. 
Then, for fear of any possibility that you may be brought into 
debt by assessments, inform the gentleman who is urging you to 
purchase, that you have concluded not to accept his offer. That 
is the only perfectly safe way of dealing in mines. 

At Diamond City we met a gentleman from New York, ad- 
vanced in years. His whole soul appeared to be centred in 
mines. Here he stays through the heats of summer and the 
frosts of winter, daily superintending his workmen, careless of 
the comforts of life that he might enjoy at home, finding more 
pleasure in roughing it in this little mining camp, than he could 
realize surrounded by luxury and educated friends. 

With him T visited the Mayflower and Gold Hill mines, 
which certainly were rich in the quality and abundance of their 
ore. The ride to them for three miles over a bridle path cut 
into the almost perpendicular mountain cliffs, affords an exten- 
sive view of the Tintec ranges and valleys, embracing the whole 
of this rich district. The air, keen and invigorating, was as 
delicious to me as the contemplation of prospective wealth to 
my companion. I left him burrowing in his mining den, and 
descending to the village we resumed our journey. 

Mounting our horses at noon, we kept on the ascent for four 
miles until reaching the divide, about seven thousand feet above 



252 THE ROUND TRIP. 

the sea level, constantly looking back upon the great picture of 
heights and depths in the south and west. But when the highest 
ridge was reached, beyond which we had as yet only seen the 
blue ocean of sky, there was presented to our admiring gaze one 
of the greatest paintings ever touched by the incomparable hand 
of nature. A long slope of two thousand feet terminated at the 
western shores of Utah Lake, on which the coloring from the 
heavens had descended. The plains beyond it were not per- 
ceptible, for the snowy Wasatch mountains seemed to have 
drawn themselves down to its eastern edge. They were fifty 
miles away, but the atmosphere had so closed the far and near 
together that if some great artist had stood beside us, he would 
have found the splendid immensity, as it were by transposing 
the lens of a camera, brought down to a size that he could 
readily transfer to his canvas. 

We had progressed but a mile or two on our descent, when 
ominous clouds began to gather on the mountain tops. Slowly 
they crept down upon the plain, circling round to our side of the 
valle}^, and drawing their dark curtains over the bright scene that 
we had but just contemplated with such infinite delight. Then 
came rain and hail on the wings of the howling wind. 

" The sky was changed, and such a change ! " — a change we 
might well compare with that witnessed by the great poet when 
he saw the placid Leman made angry by the tempest that swept 
■from Jura to the joyous Alps, as they talked aloud in their shroud 
of mist. But he saw all that from the windows of his hotel. 
Our experience was from the saddles on our horses. 

We galloped rapidly on until the plain was reached. Thence, 
passing through the wretched little town of Goshen, we waded 
for a few miles through mud and darkness, the storm still 
raging, till we arrived at the inn where we had once before been 



RETURN TO SALT LAKE CLTY. 253 

SO agreeably entertained. Welcome again a good coal fire, and 
welcome the smiling face of little Mrs. Macbeth ! 

On the following day we arrived at Provo, having been absent 
three weeks. Here we returned our horses, and proceeded by 
rail to Salt Lake. We had leisurely traversed a distance of four 
hundred miles, having passed over but eighteen miles of the 
road for the second time. 



254 



THE ROUXD TRIP. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

Idaho — Soda Springs — Natural Curiosities — The Utah 
AND Northern Railroad — A Jumping Town — The Ban- 
nock Indians — Policy of the Government. 

After visiting the renowned watering-places of Germany, 
France and America, we are contented of late to come year after 
year to this remote corner of Idaho, satisfied that at last we have 
discovered the true fountains of health in an atmosphere of purity 
beyond comparison. 

This is Soda Springs — not Saratoga with its magnificent 
hotels, balls, regattas, and races, not Carlsbad, Baden-Baden, 
Kissingen or Vichy, with \\\^\x dolce far iiienic under shady trees 
and in cur-gartens, where soft strains of music usher in the day 
and lull one to sleep at night, the only variations, the casinos 
and booths where curiosities and coffee are sold by pretty 
madchens ; where all that is desired and dispensed is the luxury of 
pleasurable laziness. Soda Springs is the reverse of all this : a 
little hamlet of a dozen log huts far away from the world of 
society and business, ensconced in a lovely valley seven thousand 
feet above the level of the sea. with ransres of mountains two 



SODA SPRINGS. 255 

thousand feet higher on every side ; the rapid Bear River, rush- 
ing through its green meadows, where herds of cattle, the only 
property of its people, find choice pasturage ; where the warm 
sun comes down by day, and the cool breezes sweep over at 
night — this is our summering place. 

True, we have none of the allurements of the great spas, but 
we have what is far better, nature in her wild majesty, an elastic, 
stimulating air, curiosities of volcanic formation, and what is the 
chief attraction to invalids, an endless abundance and variety of 
mineral springs. 

They gush out of the ground, warm and cold, in all directions, 
and need no tubing to increase their volume, but boil and sparkle 
in their great pools like reservoirs. The favorite springs are 
chiefly magnesia, soda and iron, highly charged with carbonic 
acid gas, so agreeably refreshing that it is fortunate there are no 
doctors to limit indulgence in their use. At the continental spas 
we did not object to short allowances of the nauseating water. 
Here we should rebel if not allowed to drink our fill of the 
reviving springs, 

I would fain tell those suffering from maladies not absolutely 
incurable what certain relief may be found in these wonderful 
waters, and that long and tedious as the journey to reach them 
may be, it will amply repay their toil and expense by its lasting 
benefit. 

The place itself is nothing as a town. It is merely a sort of 
Mormon outpost beyond the confines of Utah, with scarcely fifty 
inhabitants. At one time it was of some importance as a military 
station, and afterward derived a little business in supplying the 
mining camp of Cariboo, forty miles north of it. The removal of 
the post to Fort Hall, and the failure of the water at the mines, 
have nearly depopulated this once thriving village, and unless 



256 THE ROUND TRIP. 

means are found to renew the working of the mines, this settle- 
ment must rest its future on its attractions as a health resort. 

The springs are resorted to from the surrounding country. 
Men, women and children come in great Bain wagons, with sail- 
cloth awnings, turn their horses out to feed on the wide prairies, 
make their beds in, under and around their vehicles, gather cedar 
and sagebrush for their camp-fires, and are at home without 
further trouble. In this way they pass days and weeks, and are 
happier during their stay and more robust on their return than if 
they had indulged in the luxuries and dissipations of hotels, in- 
stead of gaining their own food by their guns and rods, and 
cooking it themselves. The free air of these mountains is sus- 
tenance beyond meat and drink, a consideration which few 
invalids regard. Most of them are rigidly exact in diet, while 
entirely indifferent how much poison they take in by their lungs. 

There is not much to be said for hotel accommodation at the 
springs. Our little party took possession of a vacant log cabin, 
and extemporized chairs, table and bedsteads, the latter rather 
unusual luxuries insisted upon by the ladies. Our beds were 
made from fresh hay, and with the addition of a cooking stove, 
obtained from a neighbor, we were " fixed." Perfectly independent 
of butchers, bakers and grocers, our only outside wants were met 
by the little girl who brought us butter and eggs, and by the 
Indians, who occasionally "swapped" bear meat and venison. 
We provided ourselves abundantly with ducks, geese, prairie 
chickens and trout. Best gift of freedom, there was the absence 
of the Irish Biddy ! As to our stable, the ponies we rode from 
the railway station were retained for daily service, and when not 
in use were turned loose to get a good living with the herd. As 
they were neither shod nor curried, we could dispense with 
farriers and grooms. 



NATURAL CURIOSITIES. 257 

Time never hung heavily on our hands, although society, with 
the exception of our guests, was limited. We were amused 
without the luxuries of lectures, theatres or concerts, and on 
Sundays we always attended the little Mormon meeting, where 
gathered the settlers of the neighborhood. 

People become liberal in a country where the very mountains 
and rocks teach them that every thing gives thanks unto the Lord 
who will not refuse the sincere offerings of any men that he has 
made. Even our Congregational parson realized this sentiment 
when he accepted an invitation to preach. He told the bishop 
that there was plenty of religion on which we could all agree. 
The latter replied, " Give us some of that, then. You can't use 
it all up on one Sunday." 

Sometimes we "want a carriage." Then we hire a farm 
wagon and drive where there is a road ; where there is none, 
through the sagebrush, carrying our guns on the way to visit the 
Sulphur Lake, the Swan Lake, Formation Springs, the Devil's 
Icehouse, and other sights within the radius of a few miles. 

Sulphur Lake is a sheet of water an acre in extent, many times 

stronger of mineral than the springs of Sharon and Richfield, 

and bubbling over its whole surface with escaping gas, whose 

noise is heard a mile away. Behind it is a mountain of sulphur. 

Its shore last year was a yellow sulphur beach, now black as 

charcoal. A few months before our visit, some curious persons, 

anxious to know what a literal lake of fire and brimstone was 

like, visited the place one dark evening. They dropped their 

matches on the beach, and in a moment found their most vivid 

anticipations realized. The lurid flames circled the mad, fuming 

waters, and threwtheir light on the crags, and thus these amateur 

artists painted a horrible picture, which absolutely scared them 

as they looked from fire to lake and from lake to mountains, and 

17 



258 THE ROUND TRIP. 

then at the unearthly faces of each other. The venturous souls 
carried away a most vivid realization of the awful significance of 
the Scripture allegory whose representation they had produced. 
A few miles beyond is Swan Lake, a most pleasing contrast to 
this infernal pool. Lying on the top of a high hill, it occupies 
what must have been the crater of a volcano. Its waters are so 
exquisitely transparent that the bottom can be seen at the 
distance of sixty feet, but their alkaline action has coated the 
rocks and fallen trees with a white covering, and as one looks 
over its edge at any part of its circumference of three hundred 
yards, he sees that he stands on a crust; for the water, or its pre- 
decessor the fire, has eaten away the rock hundreds of feet under 
the shores. This is wonderful and grand ; but a prettier sight is 
the escape of the water as it seems loth to run down to the plains, 
but leaps in silver cascades from one moss-crowned basin to 
another in lovely embellishments, the sight of w'hich would reward 
a landscape gardener for his journey. 

The Formation Springs are courses of water constantly 
changing their currents, leaving deposits, petrifying trees and 
bushes, and creating substances like the brittle coral of the sea. 
They have hollowed out large caves, frescoing their walls with 
festoons of white drapery, and then, finding a subterranean 
outlet, have disappeared beneath the surface, how deep no one 
can tell, until three miles below the darkened stream rushes up 
again to the light of day, and runs sparkling to the river. 

Down the valley in another direction is the old volcano. It 
is more easily climbed than Vesuvius, and its ashes have been 
blown away or have consolidated themselves during the ages 
since the crater emitted its fires, but far around lie the huge 
blocks of lava, and the earth is ploughed into gigantic furrows of 
stone. 



THE UTAH AND NORTHERN RAILROAD. 259 

What we have named " the Devil's Icehouse," was but lately 
discovered. Some young men on a hunting excursion found a 
deep cave where snow and ice could be seen at the bottom. We 
went up to visit the place, and our party was the first to explore 
it. There we found hundreds of tons of pure ice, from which we 
brought home a supply. It is a permanent icehouse, not affected 
by the upper air, which marked eighty-five degrees, while in the 
cavern the glass stood at twenty-nine. 

Compare such wonders as these with the sights and curiosities 
of a German spa ! I do not mean to be enthusiastic, but take 
all the famous watering-places of Europe, with the little that 
nature and the much that art has done for them — combine them 
all, and you will find that this wild sanitarium of the Idaho 
Mountains will send you back to your home with better health 
and more interesting recollections when your summer is ended. 

The most convenient way to reach Soda Springs from the 
East is by the Union Pacific to its terminus at Ogden, where the 
" Utah and Northern " narrow gauge railroad branches north to 
Montana, at the same point whence the Utah Central runs in an 
opposite direction to Salt Lake City. 

This Utah and Northern Railroad, commenced by a company 
whose capital soon became exhausted, was seized by those terri- 
ble monopolists, Sidney Dillon and Jay Gould, and by them 
started into new life and a prospective career of prosperity. In 
the estimation of Mr. Kearney this was probably unjustifiable. 
The enterprise should have remained passive until labor could 
have completed it without the aid of money. The new company 
has made it an important auxiliary to the Union Pacific line, to 
which it will largely contribute from the traffic with Idaho and 
Montana. 

Indeed the unexpected success of the main trunk road from 



26o "^^^ ROUND TRIP. 

the Eastern States to the Pacific is attributable to such enter- 
prises as these. It is no more than justice to the present man- 
agers to say that by their energy and capital they have brought 
it to a position not attainable by any other means. The road 
would have been bankrupt long ago but for the business they 
have made along its line, in the lateral branches, which, unlike 
the branches of a tree, bring nourishment to it instead of taking 
it away. 

The Utah and Northern line was already in operation one 
hundred and twenty-seven miles in a north-west direction from 
Ogden to its temporary terminus at Oneida. That is the nearest 
point from which Soda Springs may be reached over a wagon 
road of thirty-two miles. It is possible, if the recent gold dis- 
coveries at Cariboo are as productive as is anticipated, that at an 
early period a branch may be built from Oneida. This, moreover, 
would be the easiest way of reaching the Yellowstone Park. 

At present that magnificent national -domain is almost inac- 
cessible. I am no advocate of subsidies for the benefit of indi- 
viduals or corporations, but in this instance it may be suggested 
that a vast pleasure-ground like the Yellowstone is of little use 
to the people unless the donor adds to the gift the opportunity 
of approaching it. The Utah and Northern Railroad takes us 
to Oneida in the direction of the Park, and then goes about 
its business to the North-west. The settlers of Idaho and Mon- 
tana hail with joy every rail that is laid down for their benefit. 
They have been too long condemned to journeys of from three 
to five hundred miles in stage-coaches, and to the payment of 
enormous and slow wagon freights, not to realize the benefit con- 
ferred upon them. Already the track is advanced forty miles 
beyond Oneida through the Bannock Reservation, and soon the 
new terminus will be beyond it. 



A JUMPING TOWN. 261 

Oneida is an itinerant town. It journeys onward as the road 
progresses. Hotels, houses, stores, saloons, stables and all 
other buildings are put up in sections marked and numbered. 
When the active Superintendent Mr. Dunn gives the order, the 
whole town is taken to pieces in two days, packed on the train, 
and with all its inhabitants moved to the next stopping place. 

New streets are then laid out, and a new city, formed of the 
old materials, springs into life, flourishing until fifty miles more 
of railroad is completed. Then it moves again. Thus it will 
continue to move till the travelling municipality is merged in 
the permanent city of Virginia or Helena, at whichever of them 
the road may terminate. 

Oneida seemed to us full of life and vigor. As we came out 
from our tent-covered hotel in the morning, horses, wagons and 
teamsters were camped far and near. The men were turning 
out, rubbing their eyes, accounting for the infernal racket of 
music and dancing we had heard in the night, when saloons and 
faro tables were doing a profitable business. 

The train had come in loaded with freight of all kinds of mer- 
chandise and agricultural tools. Twenty-six wagons with their 
four-horse teams were drawn up at the station waiting to reload 
and begin their long journey of three hundred miles, and the 
coaches were off already with their passengers. Their owners and 
drivers will doubtless regret every shortening of fifty miles, but 
the owners of the goods and the tired travellers will rejoice. Many 
more wagons with their downward freights of bullion, and ores of 
silver, copper and lead, were discharging their loads, and our 
hotel was filled with jaded, dusty passengers, who congratulated 
themselves on the comfort in store for them in the easy motion 
and rapid transit of a railroad car. Each of the coaches that 
had arrived carried three of Wells, Fargo & Co.'s messengers, 



262 THE ROUND TRIP. 

with double-barrelled guns, loaded with buckshot, and they were 
preceded by forerunners on horseback armed in the same way. 
This is the habitual style of travelling in these territories, and 
do you wonder if the new style is a welcome improvement ? 

When I had occasion to visit Oneida three weeks afterwards, 
it had taken a short jump of twenty-two miles. Its last situation 
was on the eastern border of the Bannock Reservation, and it 
was intended by the railroad company that it should make a 
flying leap across the forbidden ground to the banks of the 
Snake River. But as this was not practicable before the winter 
might set in, a compromise was made with the Indian Agency, 
whereby no liquor was to be sold, and so the town was permit- 
ted to make a temporary stand on this nominal ground of the 
Redskins. Of course, there were no " saloons," for what is a 
saloon without whiskey, and what is a railroad town or any 
other town in this western country without both ? 

All the noise, bustle, snap crack and devil-may-care exhila- 
ration that pervaded Oneida by night and day were consequently 
wanting in this new settlement of Black Rock. The coaches 
and wagons were drawn up at the station to receive their passen- 
gers and freight. They earned their money, but it seemed to 
afford no pleasure, for they came and went like funeral proces- 
sions, mourning because whiskey was not. Nevertheless, I 
apprehend that the real business of the country did not suffer 
by the deprivation. Every mile gained in the direction of Mon- 
tana is a step leading to the comfort of individuals and the 
prosperity of the nation. 

The extension through Marsh valley winds along on a level 
surface smoothed out by nature among great bowlders of lava, 
which, if continuous, would have defied engineering science, 
giant powder and money. Before we came to this slightly down- 



A JUMPING TOWN. 263 

ward slope we ascended the grade until we passed through a 
narrow gate-way, whose buttresses of encircling mountains stand 
perpendicular but a few feet from either side of the track. 

In remote ages this must have been the northern boundary 
of the Great Salt Lake, which has now receded more than a 
hundred miles south. Precisely in this gate-way the water- 
springs now divide, part of them trickling down to Snake River, 
and thence through the Columbia to the Pacific in the channel 
forced by the disruption, and the others seeking the level of 
Salt Lake. 

The " bench marks " easily traced through all the valleys to 
Southern Utah showing the former flow of the water, begin at 
these enormous gateposts, and keep their exact line of altitude 
for four hundred miles. Repeatedly in journeying across the 
country we traced these indications, and it is absolutely demon- 
strable that what is now called the Great Salt Lake, was once an 
inland sea not less than four hundred miles from north to south, 
and two hundred from east to west, more than twice the size of 
Lake Superior. The long chain of the Wasatch Mountains v/as 
its eastern barrier, while it spread itself over a great part of 
Utah and Nevada in the west, and of Idaho at the north. Its 
recession has left bare the Cache and Salt Lake valley and their 
connections, as well as what is called the Great American Desert, 
through which the Central Pacific road is built. 

Probably there is no area on the continent more barren in its 
natural state than this old lake bottom, and none that has been 
made so productive by irrigation. The Utah and Northern, the 
Utah Central, and the Utah Southern Railroads traverse it 
lengthwise, and their branches spread across it, so that if, as 
some persons think possible from a recent rise of the lake, this 
whole ground should be again submerged for a few centuries 



264 ^-^^ ROUND TRIP. 

and then become dry, the people of a future age may wonder 
who dropped this big gridiron in the basin. 

Yet our eastern friends seem to know as little about these 
great railroad enterprises of the West as may come to the knowl- 
edge of our imaginary descendants. Their stock and bonds are 
not for sale in the gambling market, but are owned chiefly by 
the Mormons, who manage their property economically and 
profitably to themselves, in opening up this great agricultural and 
mining country. 

A few miles beyond the little station of Black Rock, the 
Marsh Valley opens upon the rich and extensive plains of Snake 
River. Here is an unlimited range of pasturage, and for a hun 
dred miles the road will run through what is to some extent a 
farming land of the Indians. When it is stolen from them after 
its value is ascertained, it will speedily be peopled by settlers. 
Almost on the line too are the new gold mines of Lost River, 
to which a large emigration is predicted. 

The especial object of my visit to Black Rock was to find 
Mr. Danilson, the Indian agent. While at Soda Springs, we had 
seen many of the Indians who are scattered in the summer sea- 
son through the region bordering on their reservation, to which 
they generally return in the winter to live upon the crumbs from 
the government table. 

Now, it is a fact, attribute it to what cause we may, that there 
is not the slightest danger to life or property from Indians in 
Mormon settlements. Gentiles say that this safety arises from 
the joint hatred of Mormons and Indians to the government. 
Mormons say — and I believe them, for I am a witness of its 
truth — that it is because their people never cheat the Indians 
and never refuse them food. At any rate, I felt perfectly safe, 
even when mounted on a good horse and with a good gun — most 



THE BANNOCK INDIANS. 265 

dcjsirable of all property — among the many Indians we met miles 
away from the village. These Bannocks, whose tribe was on 
the war-palh at the north, never molested us. They came to our 
door with game, fish and skins, for which we " swapped " with 
them, if we had occasion for such things. If not, we gave them 
bread, meat and coffee. We never locked our doors against 
Indians, but we slept at night with loaded guns by our bedsides, 
in anticipation of possible visits from white " road agents." 

From the Bannocks who could speak English we heard the 
same universal tale of woe. How I wish that one eloquent old 
man whom we heard could have some useless politician's half 
hour on the floor of Congress ! He did not talk from a rostrum 
or a pulpit in fine periods of rhetoric, but mounted on a sorry 
pony, whose drooping head seemed to be bowed down in sym- 
pathy with his master's grief, he told of the wrongs of his people. 

" Indian kill 'em two white men 'cause white men steal 'em 
squaw. Spose Indian steal white man squaw .-' White man no 
kill Indian ? So white man clean 'em out all Indian! steal 'em 
land, steal 'em squaw, steal 'em horse, cheat 'em Indian, starve 
'em Indian, kill 'em Indian! All right; Indian die!" And 
suiting the action to the word the old man rolled off upon the 
ground, folded his arms across his breast in imitation of death 
as he added, " Heap happy now ! " 

The Bannocks were loud in their complaints against the 
Indian agent, and many of the settlers seemed to think they had 
cause. They said that in winter they had scanty food on the 
reservation, and in summer were driven off to get their own sub- 
sistence without powder or shot. It was intimated that the 
agent drew their rations in the mean time for his own profit. 
When I came to call upon Mr. Danilson I frankly told him what 
was said of him by the Indians and by the settlers. 



266 THE ROUND TRIP. 

" It is not the first time that I have heard these stories," said 
he, " and I am sorry to say that there is some truth in them, 
only they unfortunately accuse the wrong party. It is Congress 
that is to blame for making insufficient appropriations." 

In a long conversation with Mr. Danilson, some curious de- 
velopments came out touching the philanthropic policy of the 
government, which acts like a mother-in-law in her attempt to make 
people happy in her own way. The religious welfare of the 
Indians is impartially cared for by allotting the reservations 
among the different sects. 

The Shoshones and Bannocks, of whom there are one 
thousand of the former, and six hundred of the latter, are turned 
over to the Methodists, the agent forcibly remarking that he 

" would be d d if anybody but a Methodist should preach to 

them, for it was the order." At the same time he observed that 
an Indian had no idea of religion, anyway, and government 
didn't do this with the expectation of converting them, it was 
only to keep the churches from quarrelling. 

In a temporal way it desires to civilize the wild Bannock, and 
the ingenious plan it adopts to make him a farmer, is this : 
when the spring opens, every Indian who will work on the land has 
his rations continued — that is, the ratio of the rations that the agent 
has been able to serve out. Then, those Indians who do not choose 
to be farmers, are turned loose to hunt upon the reservation, whence 
all the game has been killed off by the emigrant and cattle trains, 
or to search for it where they can. And this hunting is to be done 
without powder or shot ! To sell ammunition to them is a penal 
offense. This is simply turning them over to the charity of the 
settlers, who are themselves poor, but who are prompted by 
policy, as well as humanity, to see that they do not suffer for 
want of food. 



POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT. 267 

"In fact," said Mr. Danilson, "the amount of rations allowed 
by government is so miserably small, that most of the Indians 
must be driven off for the greater part of the year, or all of them 
would starve. If I divided equally what I have, it would not 
amount in value to five cents per head daily." By dint of teach- 
ing Indians in this novel way to become farmers, one hundred 
and twenty-five families have been forced to cultivate some of 
the bottom lands on the Snake River ; but from all accounts the 
product of their farms does not exceed the government stipend 
of five cents per day to each individual working upon them. 

Upon asking Mr. Danilson what he thought of the proposition 
to turn the management of the Indians over to the army, he re- 
plied that while the Indian agents were the best civilizers, the 
officers of the army could undoubtedly maintain better order, 
and might entirely prevent war and raiding, if they were allowed 
to feed and clothe the Indians comfortably, but that neither 
civilian nor soldier could keep them quiet in any other way. 

I am more than ever convinced by this interview that the 
civilization and conversion of savages is of small account, even 
if practicable, in comparison with full stomachs for them, and 
the safety to white men that would result from placing all these 
tribes under the absolute control of the army, which should be 
sustained in its duties by sufficient appropriations. 



268 1'HE ROUND TRIP. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

Travels among the Mormons — The Prolific Patriarch — 
The Legend of Bear Lake — Brother Cook and his 
Family — Vicarious Baptism — A Mormon Court — A Pros- 
perous Convert — Blacksmith's Fork CaJJon — Return to 
THE Line of the Union Pacific. 

Our equipage was what my facetious friend " Sunset " Cox 
once called a similar outfit — " a horse and a half." The half in 
this instance was the best part of the whole, for the patient mule 
was more enduring, whereas the horse advanced, as the Dutchman 
expressed it, " mit a yerk." Stopping was his favorite gait, 
which whip and spurs induced him to change occasionally. Both 
animals delighted in straying. Even when hoppled at night they 
strayed miles away, and all the walking I required was obtained 
in hunting them up in the morning. But they were of great ser- 
vice for daily use at Soda Springs, or rather they were indis- 
pensable luxuries. 

Taking a farewell glass at Nature's great soda fountain, the 
animals were packed for the journey with valise, saddlebags, 
fishing rods and gun, and about noon we mounted them and 
took our way south-easterly, for the Bear Lake region. 

We followed the banks of the Bear River for eight miles, to 



TRA VELS AMONG THE MORMONS. 269 

the most practicable ford, and wading its rapid current, crossed 
a divide which brought us into the Nounan Valley, a grassy 
meadow where the cattle and sheep of Bishop Merrill were grazing. 
After travelling nineteen miles, we arrived at the Episcopal 
mansion, a log house of one stor}', but a home where we were 
kindly entertained by the hospitable prelate and his wives. 
Some twenty children were running about the premises, and 
several of them dined with us. A leg of good mutton was upon 
the table, but the fresh butter and rich cream were the chief 
attractions. 

Again mounting our animals we left this quiet little valley. 
Still following up the Bear River, and leaving on our left the 
towns of Bennington and Montpelier — names that reminded us 
of those Green Mountains nearer home — and travelling twenty 
miles further we' came in sight of Paris at sunset. No Arc de 
Triomphe shone in the distance, no Dome des Invalides or 
Column of Vendome, nor did we approach the city through in- 
viting suburbs. Descending into a valley just covered by the 
dark shadow of the western mountains, and extending over it 
to the foot of the still sunny range of hills at the east, there lay 
before us a Mormon village of less than a thousand inhabitants, 
scarcely one of whom was to be seen. We reached the house of 
Mr. Rich, who had kindly offered us his hospitalities while at 
Soda Springs. 

" Is your father at home ? " I asked of a youngster who proved 
to be a brother of our friend. 

" Yes, sir, I guess so," he replied. " He must be in one of 
his houses." 

" But isn't this his house ? " 

" Oh ! no ; this is my brother Joe's, who is expecting you. 
Father's got five houses, because he's got five wives." 



270 THE ROUND TRIP. 

" And how many brothers and sisters have you ? '' 

"Well, I had about sixty once, but there ain't more'n forty of 
us alive now." 

Mr. Joseph Rich gave us a cordial welcome, and in the even- 
ing we were introduced to the patriarch, a hearty-looking man of 
sixty-five, who from his jollity one would have supposed a 
bachelor, rather than a five-fold husband. He is a high dignitary, 
the president of this district, having the supervision of all the 
bishops of the neighborhood. He " gives counsel," This means 
that if his advice is followed in secular affairs, persons to whom 
it is given are absolved from responsibility in their dealings with 
their neighbors. 

Having obeyed the divine command to increase and multiply 
to such an extent, an extra degree of holiness is attached to him, 
and he seems very fond of his superiority in this respect. Lately 
there was a gathering of the Rich family at Cape Cod, where it 
is supposed to have originated. Our venerable friend was present 
as a full representative, and on that occasion he astonished his 
relatives by the time he occupied in reciting the names of his 
children. Cape Cod and all " down east " were forced to yield 
the palm of productiveness to the representative from Idaho. 

In the evening he talked very freely about family matters, in 
which he took a numerical rather than an ancestral pride. We 
were surrounded by a dozen or two of his children of all ages, 
from babyhood to manhood. One of them, a sprightly young 
woman, the mother of children older than some of her brothers 
and sisters, told us that she had failed in the task of counting her 
relations. 

" Say, father," she asked, "isn't Eliza the oldest of 'em all? " 

** Well," answered the prolific parent,"! believe she does 
come somewhere among the first." 



THE PROLIFIC PA TRIARCH. 2.IX 

" Now look here, old man," she exclaimed, " this kind o' thing 
has been well enough for you, but I don't mean my husband shall 
be bothered as you are in taking count. He shan't have no- 
body's young ones to count over but just mine. Let me catch 
him gettin' sealed in this world ; he may get sealed for eternity 
as much as he likes, but nary a seal shall he have down here— - 
not if I know it ! " 

In saying this she gave expression to the almost universal 
sentiment of the younger Mormons of both sexes. It is now 
useless for the church to preach polygamy, holding up Abraham, 
Isaac, Jacob, David and Solomon as examples. A woman of the 
present day is contented with no fraction of a man, be he prophet, 
priest, or king. She wants an individual whole. 

There was the usual morning exercise in hunting for the 
horse and mule. Both had been hoppled, but the former was 
attracted by a passing drqve, and was found consorting with 
them three miles out ujDon the plains ; and the latter, who with 
his legs tied could jump a four rail fence as easily as a convict 
can scale the walls of Sing Sing, was discovered helping him- 
self to the oats of a neighboring farmer. 

In the mean time, while a dozen boys were looking for them 
we were breakfasting with Bishop Budge. Our kind entertainer 
was a Scotchman, converted many years ago from Presbyterian- 
ism, as he said, to "a saving knowledge of the truth." His 
notion of the truth has gradually been enlarged until he reached 
his present dignity, and lest there should be any mistake in his 
obeying the Scriptural command, that a person of his order shall 
be " the husband of one wife," he has provided himself with a re- 
lay of two more, so that in the case of the death of No. i, he 
may not be disobedient for a moment. 

" Ah, well," said he, " they think ill of me at home for changing 



272 THE ROUND TRIP. 

my religion ; but there was my brother Aleck who took it most to 
heart. He was on his way last year to California, and turned off 
the road a bit to see me, and to try to bring me back into the fold. 
When he got here he spent the whole evening in lecturing me, 
and then went to bed. In the morning I gave him the best 
breakfast the country would afford — coffee and rolls, trout, beef 
and venison steak, and such like. Poor Aleck ! he looked all 
over the table, and then turned upon me his sorrowful face, 
blurting out, ' Oh, Jamie, mon ! Jamie, mon ! did I ever think it 
would come to this. I could hae forgi'en ye a' yer poleegamy, 
but hae ye gien up yer parritch ? ' " 

As the dwellings occupied by No. i and No. 2 were under- 
going repairs, we were welcomed in his smallest house by No. 3, 
a young Danish woman, of neat appearance and pleasing address, 
who informed us that she accepted her present situation when 
she was only fifteen years old. When a No. i is married, she 
generally speaks of herself as a married woman. Later wives, 
although pretending to be married, speak of their change of state 
as the time when they "went into polygamy." 

We had an excellent breakfast, and Brother Budge gave us a 
very flattering account of the spiritual and temporal condition of 
his flock. 

" Paris," he said, " is the principal town of that part of 
Oneida county called the Bear Lake district, which as you go 
south you will find to be the most fertile of any part of Idaho 
that you have seen. We raise an abundance of wheat, oats, 
vegetables of all kinds, and the small fruits. Our people are in- 
dustrious and thriving. They have a rich soil, a great deal of 
which requires no irrigation, and produces freely forty or fifty 
bushels to the acre. The climate is healthy, and the scenery of 
the lake and the mountain canons is unsurpassed for beauty and 



THE PROLIFIC PA TRIARCH. 



273 



grandeur. The people are virtuous, as a class, and consequently 
happy." 

What we saw afterwards, justified the truth of his encomium. 

The large Mormon majority of this district is due to the fact 
that when it was settled, the territorial line of Utah was supposed 
to include it, but the new survey placed the inhabitants on the 
outside of that line, and as they had already brought the land 
under cultivation, and were unmolested by their fellow-citizens, 
with whom they are on amicable terms, they preferred to remain 
in the enjoyment of their possessions. 

On the morning of our departure a very funny incident 
occurred. The old patriarch had discovered, on the evening 
before, that one of his sons was becoming weak in the faith and 
intended to abjure his religion. Moreover — and with a family 
of fifty it will not seem strange — he had forgotten to baptize 
this one black sheep. Accordingly, vi et armis, he dragged the 
young man from his bed and put him under the cold waters of 
the neighboring creek before breakfast. 

At noon the horse and mule were saddled, and bidding adieu 
to our hosts, who as usual declined all offers of money, we passed 
on to St. Charles, the next settlement, where at the distance of 
eight miles from Paris we came upon the shores of Bear Lake, at 
its northern extremity. Our road lay through great fields of 
wheat, in the harvesting of which the whole population, men, 
women and children, were busily engaged. The farms extended 
to the borders of the lake, now spread before us in all the beauty of 
pleasing contrasts of the yellow wheat-fields and blue waters, 
darkening to the lofty range of gray mountains that extended 
along the eastern shore. 

Skirting the western bank we came to the small village of 

Fish Haven, where we stopped to lunch with Mr. Stock. The 

18 



274 "^^^ ROUND TRIP. 

lady of the house told us that she and her husband heard the 
glad tidings of salvation at Port Natal, beyond the Cape of Good 
Hope, and on embracing the faith they sold out all their posses- 
sions, and sought the Lord in these " his holy mountains." 
Thus the Mormon missionaries penetrate the remotest corners 
of the earth, even "carrying the war into Africa." 

But they are not solicitous about the negroes. They consider 
them to be the descendants of Ham, " cursed with a curse." 
They are rather pro-slavery in their notions, the negro in their 
estimation being doomed by the Almighty to be a " servant of 
servants " forever. They admit that he has a soul, but although 
he may have a place in heaven, he never can be "exalted." 
He is sometimes baptized, but is not admitted to the priesthood, 
that is, he is not permitted to "talk in meeting," a privilege 
the negro is always ambitious to secure, and consequently 
seldom embraces " the faith delivered to the saints." 

There were several Mistresses Stock, and each one had a 
stock of children. Beds, cribs and cradles constituted the furni- 
ture of the house. We took lunch under difficulties, and then 
rode five miles further down the lake to Swan Creek, the first 
settlement within the boundaries of Utah territory, where we had 
been commended by Bishop Budge to the hospitalities of Mr., 
Mrs. and another Mrs. Cook. 

Two or three rude cabins, a sawmill and gristmill constitute 
the settlement of Swan Creek, and all these are the property of 
our host, Mr. Cook. All around the borders of the lake were his 
fields of wheat and corn, and the green meadows where his cattle 
feed extend far and near. When this part of the country becomes 
better known, tourists will frequent Bear Lake, hotels will stand 
upon its banks, and steamboats will stir its waters. But now only 
a passing stranger visits it. Here and there may be found a 



THE LEGEND OF BEAR LAKE. 275 

hamlet on its shores, and perhaps the only navigable craft upon 
it are the little skiffs, in one of which we paddled out on its deep 
waters and beheld the bottom, many fathoms beneath, as clearly 
as the blue sky over our heads. It abounds in salmon trout and 
fish of various other kinds, and has a romantic reputation. 

No Indian was ever known to launch his canoe upon it, to 
bathe in it, or even to fish from its banks. They believe it to 
be sacred to the monsters of its depths, and dare not pollute its 
waters, or take from them a single fish put there for the food of 
the dreaded proprietors. 

The legend is that centuries ago, when the Sioux and Ban- 
nocks were at war, a chief of the former tribe became enamoured 
of a dusky Bannock maiden. The course of true love, which 
never did run smooth, led them over mountains and canons in 
their escape from the pursuit of the hostile tribes, whose mem- 
bers were for the time in league for mutual vengeance. 

At last, like the Highlander with Lord Ullin's daughter, they 
came to the shores of the lake, their angry relatives close behind. 
There was no gallant old ferryman willing to risk his life for the 
" winsome ladye," and so they plunged into the waves to become 
targets for arrows and tomahawks. 

But suddenly the Great Spirit transformed them into two 
enormous serpents. Rearing their heads from the water they 
shot from their mouths a volley of beach stones on their paralyzed 
foes, but few of whom escaped to hand down to succeeding 
generations the warning to beware of this enchanted lake. 

Aside from all such superstition as this, there really is good 
reason to believe that the lake is inhabited by some abnormal 
water animals. We conversed with seven persons, among them 
our friend, the bishop, who at different times had seen them, and 
they told us that many other individuals could verify their report. 



276 THE ROUND TRIP. 

The length of these monsters varies from thhty to eighty feet, 
and their bodies are covered with fur like that of a seal. The 
head is described like that of an alligator. In one instance the 
animal came close to the shore, and was entangled in the rushes, 
where he squirmed and splashed, and made a horrible noise like 
the roaring of a bull. 

It is true the Mormons are a very credulous people. They 
believe in all sorts of revelations and appearances, angelic and 
diabolical. Some allowance should therefore be made for this 
tendency of their minds, but with all that considered, it cannot 
be possible for so many people to be utterly mistaken. There 
are unquestionably in Bear Lake some fish larger than the 
ordinary salmon trout. Whatever they may be, they did not 
exhibit themselves for our benefit. 

We remained three days with the kind people on whom we 
had been quartered. Mr. Cook was an elderly man. His family 
consisted of two wives and twenty children, ranging from man- 
hood to infancy, and a sister who had just left her husband in 
the east, to join the church. I have not been slow to criticise 
the bad features of polygamy, but, with a disposition to do the 
institution whatever justice it may be entitled to, I readily admit 
that this was in every respect a happy family. The utmost 
conjugal, parental and fraternal affection prevailed among them 
all. 

The head of the establishment was a sincerely religious man. 
His devotions, morning and evening, and before every meal, 
breathed the spirit of earnest love for all mankind, and of desire 
for their conversion to what he believed to be the truth. He 
had implicit faith in every dogma of his church, and oh how he 
did wrestle with the Lord for the strangers under his roof, and 
how he did urge upon us the duty of entering the fold ! 



VICARIOUS BAPTISM. 277 

Like all Mormons, he believed in " baptism for the dead." 
He said he had been baptized in one day two hundred and forty 
times for his dead relatives and friends. He seemed to wish 
that I might die before him, in order that he might be baptized 
for me : and in case his wish for my early death was not gratified, 
and he should pass first through the dark valley, he enjoined it 
upon his sons to go into the water for me. So all the male 
members of the Cook family are enlisted for my salvation. 
Good, kind-hearted old enthusiast, far be it from me to ridicule 
your faith ! 

Jane and Adeline, the two wives, were equally interested in 
the eternal welfare of my wife. If either of them survives her, 
whenever her death is announced, baptism by proxy will be per- 
formed for her, and if their death precedes hers, as, with all due 
regard for these excellent ladies, I hope may be the case, then 
one of the girls is to take the mother's place in the ceremony. 

The elderly Mrs. Jewett had the zeal of a new convert in 
complying with all the formalities of Mormonism. She must 
now be " sealed " to some other man. She remarked : " This 
troubles me more than any thing else. I don't see who they can 
get for me. At my age I am not very marketable, and then I 
was always so neat and particular. Folks out here are most of 
'em dreadful dirty. To be sure it will be celestial marriage, and 
I needn't stay with 'em on earth without I've a mind to : but I 
wouldn't like dirty folks even in heaven ! " 

Mr. Cook proposed to seal himself " celestially " to any 
unmarried ladies of our acquaintance, and we gave him a list of 
several who have passed beyond matrimonial chances in this life, 
and who are probably now, without their knowledge, the brides of 
Mr. Cook for the future world. Poor man, he little knows what 
hard bargains he has made ! 



278 THE ROUND TRIP. 

I have no space to write about all his revelations, manifesta- 
tions, and various extravagances. According to his belief, the 
garden of Eden was in Ohio, and the ark was built in Missouri. 
He produced the Bible to prove that it could easily have drifted 
to Ararat in seven months. As this could not be denied, he 
claimed for himself the full force of his argument. 

Such were some of the wild notions of this curious family : 
and yet with all their religious insanity they attended most in- 
dustriously to their farm and their mills. Their house was 
scrupulously neat, and their table loaded with substantial food. 

Before leaving Swan Creek we attended an ecclesiastical 
court. It is the practice of the Mormons to settle all disputes 
with each other by referring them to a tribunal of their own, 
rather than to encourage litigation and employ lawyers. Mr. 
Cook had "jumped " an adjoining tract of land which a brother 
Mormon had pre-empted five years before, but never occupied. 
In strict conformity to the laws of the United States — and this 
was not disputed — Cook had gone upon the land last year, put 
up fences and raised a crop of wheat. Finding the land had 
now become valuable, the original pre-emptor came back and 
took possession. This was the case before the tribunal. 

The court was held in a log cabin fifteen feet square. At 
one end was a chair for the president, and on extemporized 
benches sat the council of twelve, six on each side. The plain- 
tiff, defendant and witnesses were between the two rows of 
councillors. This is the regular form. The court was opened 
with prayer, and then the parties to the suit each told his own 
story, producing his own witnesses. They both agreed to let the 
question be settled by the council, reserving the right of appeal 
to the head of the church at Salt Lake, but in no case to the law 
courts of the land. 



A PROSPEROUS CONVERT. 279 

When the evidence was all in, and the arguments had been 
concluded, which occupied two hours, rhe president gave his 
decision, subject to objection from any of the council. There 
was no opposition to it, be3'ond some slight modifications. The 
\erdict was that the original pre-emptor should retain the prop- 
erty, but that he should pay brother Cook for all the expense he 
had put upon it. 

As Cook wanted the land more than the money, he took an 
appeal. Then everybody shook hands all round, and the court 
was closed with an invocation of the divine blessing. The farm- 
ers harnessed their teams and went home satisfied with the 
reflection that, if they had done no good, they had certainly done 
no harm, and — a consolation that no lawyer ever feels — that they 
had put nobody to the expense of a dollar. 

Leaving Swan Creek we rode along the lake for seven miles, 
under the shade of a natural avenue of Cottonwood and willows, 
forgetting our curiosity to see the " lake monsters " in the 
beauties of water, sky and mountain, that needed no legends or 
aid of imagination to make them attractive. Then our road led 
us around the foot of a mountain to a town fitly named Meadow- 
ville. Fording a stream called Duck Creek, fifteen miles from 
the house of Mr. Cook, we came to the ranche of Mr. Kerl, a 
Mormon of a different stamp. Whatever religious bigotry he 
had, he kept to himself ; and if in the neighboring houses we 
had not seen two young women and a crowd of children who 
evidently belonged to him, we should not have surmised that the 
family who entertained us were other than ordinary Gentiles. 
Mrs. Kerl is an Englishwoman, who, as she frankly confessed, 
had been at service in her youth, when her husband was a game- 
keeper's boy in the "New Forest." It is their only boast of 
Mormonism that it has been the means of elevating them from 



28o THE ROUND TRIP. 

their former condition to the proprietorship of this valuable 
ranche. Here they have great droves of cattle, flocks of sheep, 
and herds of horses ranging the slopes of mountain pastures, and 
three hundred acres of land, producing full crops of wheat and 
oats. Here they make tons of butter and cheese, and live 
literally on the " fat of the land ; " while, if there is any poetry in 
their souls, their notions must be enlarged with their estate. 
When Goldsmith mourned over his deserted village of the plain, 
could his eye have rested on a scene like this, where man be- 
comes his own master under Nature's smiles, and fed by her 
teeming abundance, he would not have deplored the fate of 
" Sweet Auburn " in his plaintive verse. 

Did the sun shine brighter, were the meadows more green, 
the mountains more purple, the stacks of yellow grain more 
abundant, or was there not, besides all these, something in the 
quiet contentment of the people around us that caused us so 
fully to enjoy the day spent in this happy valley ? 

Very opportunely Mr. Kerl was intending on the next day to 
go down in his wagon through the canons towards Logan, a dis- 
tance of fifty miles, and we took advantage of this to ease our 
animals of their heavy packs of luggage. After a morning of 
successful shooting on the meadows we left the ranche, in com- 
pany with its owner. Passing the first divide we obtained a fare- 
well view of Bear Lake, and after that our path wound through 
a labyrinth of mountains, up and down wild canons, by the side 
of their streams, the scenery ever changing ; green slopes, joer- 
pendicular crags, lovely valleys, succeeding each other so rapidly 
that only a confused memory of beauties was left upon our minds. 

In this way we passed over twenty-seven miles, and at even- 
ing came to " Blacksmith Forks," where the canon of that name 
begins its descent to Logan, and the Ogden Canon branches off 



THE LIXE OF THE UATON PACIFIC. 281 

to the left, ^^'e camped on the banks of the head-waters of 
Logan River, Having hoppled our saddle beasts, and tied the 
others to the wagon wheels, we built a fire and cooked some 
grouse and ducks shot on the way, and then, after a social game 
of euchre by the light of the camp fire, made our preparations 
for the night. 

Mr. Kerl kindly gave up his bed by stepping out of his wagon, 
where we lay down upon the hay with a glorious blue canopy 
spangled with stars over our heads, and although the frost was 
so severe at this altitude of seven thousand feet that our breath 
froze upon the blankets, we passed a night of luxurious sleep 
unknown to those who lie upon " downy beds of ease." 

The morning was excessively cold, but we were soon com- 
forted by a good fire and an excellent breakfast like our supper 
of the evening before ; and then, at sunrise, we saddled and 
harnessed our beasts and resumed our journey. 

The remaining twenty-five miles was a continual descent, and 
an uninterrupted scene of grandeur until, emerging from the 
canon, we came down on the plains of Cache Valley, and then, 
beautiful as were the meadows and the harvest of grain, how 
tame every thing appeared compared with the remembrance of all 
that we had left behind ! The atmosphere had lost its elasticity, 
and for the time we experienced a depression of spirits which led 
us to look back regretfully upon the mountains, and to sigh for 
a breath of their pure air. Unmindful of the fatigue, we would 
fain have turned and retraced our steps. 

We arrived at Logan soon after noon and there took the 
train for Ogden, after returning our animals to their owners. Ap- 
preciating their many good qualities their faults were freely for- 
given, and the mule's rider thought that she detected a tear in his 
eye when she bade him an affectionate farewell. 



282 THE ROUND TRIP. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

The Union Pacific Railroad — The Rocky Mountains — 
Easy-going Emigrants — Greeley, on the road to Denver. 

On leaving California, after crossing the Sierras Nevadas, the 
traveller is carried over an elevated plateau, as before described, 
until by a somewhat gradual descent he comes to the valley of 
the Great Salt Lake, the lowest level between the Sierras and 
the Rocky Mountains. From Ogden begins the ascent of the 
great range through the Weber and Echo Canons, amidst the 
wildest scenery of the route. 

The Sierras, sooner traversed, may leave more pleasant memo- 
ries of thickly wooded valleys which offset the ruggedness of their 
peaks. These bare and lonely mountains, with their sharp out- 
lines of adamantine rocks, impress us with ideas of stern sub- 
limity, in which not a single thought of beauty enters. 

We rise to a grade 1125 feet higher than any on the Central 
Pacific Road, and among innumerable buttes and glacier-worn 
crags are carried on towards the breezy plains of Laramie. 

The Union Pacific Railroad is coming to be considered a fre- 
quented avenue leading out of New York. It is well known in 
the courts and in the halls of Congress, where it is annually made 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 283 

the object of attack, and its present stockholders subjected to 
punishment for the Credit Mobilier transactions and the crook- 
edness of old contractors. It will be a happy day for them and for 
the public when all disputes are finally settled, and this great 
work, constructed for the relief of the country in its dire neces- 
sity, shall have free scope to develop its peaceful industries. 

Aided by nature, whose obstacles its first mission was to over- 
come, it is already opening vast fields of mineral wealth. When 
the road was begun, the presence of gold and silver ore on this 
side of the Pacific slope was almost unknown. Now its feeders 
from Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Dakota and Colorado 
bring thousands of tons to its depots. 

Of coal, then absolutely undiscovered, its own mines in 
Wyoming alone last year produced 276,000 tons, and the best 
iron in the continent has been found abundantly on its route, 
where foundries and works have been established. Besides these 
metals, vast deposits of sulphur, soda and oil-bearing rock are 
now being exploited. 

Not the least of its resources are the ever multiplying herds 
of cattle and flocks of sheep that roam the fertile plains. These 
old homes of the buffalo and antelope have been captured 
by them ; for the inexorable laws of nature dictate " the survival 
of the fittest," in an invariable line of progress. Useless ani- 
mals are superseded by those that are necessary to man, as use- 
less men, Indians, greasers and negroes are being swept away 
by those lords of creation born of the Anglo-Saxon race. It is 
a high title, but they have assumed it, though all of them do not 
bear the stamp of nobility. 

When Mr. Greeley advised the young man to "go west," a 
compliance with his counsel was a literal obedience. The young 
man went. He was not carried ; he went, either on a solitary 



284 THE ROUND TRIP. 

march with gun and pickaxe over his shoulders, or walked by 
the side of slow moving oxen drawing all his worldly goods. 
Among them, and first of his articles of necessity, was his youth- 
ful bride, who, leaving the comforts of her eastern home, fitted 
herself on the long tramp to become his helpmate and not his 
expensive toy. 

Emigrants of this style are not yet extinct. On the prairies 
we often passed them taking their weary road that had its ad- 
vantages in reconciling them to their new home. At one of the 
stations on the plains west of Cheyenne, while other passengers 
were at their meal, we strayed away to look at a temporary house- 
keeping arrangement not far from the train. 

The horse and cow were grazing at a little distance from the 
empty wagon, from which the top had been removed and con- 
verted into a tent. Out of doors a rosy cheeked young woman 
was preparing the dinner upon a miniature cooking-stove while the 
husband was engaged in an employment that would not have 
suggested itself to us — beating into flat slabs the tin cans that he 
had picked up on his journey. These, he said, were to cover his 
roof when he built a house somewhere. 

" Somewhere ? And where is that ? " we asked. 

" Well now, mister," he replied, " you are too much for me 
there. I suppose we must stop somewhere by and by, but the 
further we go, the less we want to. I like to keep going this 
way. My wife, she likes it ; and the baby in there seems to like it 
too, for she grows like a weed. We are none of us sick ; we 
always have plenty to eat, and so we don't see the use of stopping. 
But one of these days I suppose we shall get to the Pacific, and 
then we shall have to stop. In the mean time, if we strike a good 
place we may build a house to live in for a spell, but for the pres- 
ent we are well enough off." 



GREELEY. 285 

The shrill whistle hurried us back to the train, whence from 
the windows of our car we looked back with a feeling almost of 
envy upon the happy vagrants. 

That young man was not the one the Tribune philosopher had 
in mind when he gave his memorable direction. From present 
appearances, he will not contribute much to build up the waste 
places, although from a selfish point of view he is happier than 
the pioneer, whose object it is, first of all things, to make himself 
rich. 

Mr. Greeley was a man of ideas, some of them, as many people 
think, erroneous, but he was undeniably right in wishing, for the 
good of the nation and of the individual, to send the poor labor- 
er away from the crowded city to the new soil of the great West. 

Approaching Denver, after branching off at Cheyenne, the 
road passes through a town called by the name of the philosopher, 
founded two years before his death, and intended to realize 
his favorite scheme of communistic labor. Had he lived, he 
might have rejoiced over the success of this experiment on a 
small scale, and had he lived many years more he must have dis- 
covered what almost everybody anticipates, that the plan would 
fail when carried out on a large scale. 

Greeley is very like a Mormon town. About two thousand- 
people of advanced ideas gathered here and established a com- 
mon home, tilling the land, pasturing flocks and herds for mutual 
support and profit. They have co-operative mills and stores, 
and possibly will live together, so long as their number is small, 
in happiness and peace. Unlike the Mormons, however, who in 
many of their towns have adopted this system, they are divided 
into different religious sects, thus lacking a common bond of 
union which might presage a more assured success. 



286 THE ROUND TRIP. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

The City of Denver — Sunday — Climate — Railroads — En- 
thusiastic McAllister — Colorado Springs — Colorado 
City — Manitou — "Garden of the Gods " and Canons. 

On the morning after our arrival at Denver, we started on a 
tour of observation, guided by a citizen who reckoned himself 
among the "oldest inhabitants." We were shown the wide 
streets on whose borders some little cottonwood trees were 
struggling for life and promising a future shade in return for the 
labor of irrigation. The hotels were in number and capacity 
sufficient to accommodate the whole population. There were 
houses in various gradations, from the elegant residences of the 
rich to the wretched dens of the Italians and Chinese. 

The stores — in the relative proportion of one to each dwell- 
ing — were all open, for it was Sunday, and Sunday is the busy 
day of Denver. It is the day when the miners pour into the town 
to supply themselves with provisions, and the farmers bring in 
produce to exchange for their wants. The bar rooms, billiard 
halls, sample rooms and saloons were reaping their richest 
harvest of the week ; all was life, bustle and confusion. What 
a busy place it is, we thought ! If the exuberance of trade can 



SUN DA Y. 287 

only find vent by encroaching thus upon the Sabbath, what must 
it be upon weekdays ! 

Mingling with the uproar of trade, the church bells chimed 
in from all quarters, calling upon the people to divide the 
service of Mammon with God, by giving him at least one hour 
of the day. It is fair to the Denverites to say that they are 
willing to make this compromise. They generally close their 
stores, and some of them are even willing to vacate the bar rooms, 
at II o'clock. After service, our guide took us to view the 
antiquities, pointing with all the pride of an Italian cicerone to 
a log cabin built in the almost forgotten past of twenty years ago ; 
for in the great West decades and even single years are centuries. 

The settlement of Denver was begun in 1859. For the first nine 
years of its existence it was a mere mining camp, or rather a 
deposit of stores for miners. Then it lingered along, its popu- 
lation barely increasing to the number of four thousand, until 
railroads, the great pioneers of civilization, brought to it a sudden 
accession of inhabitants and wealth. Then it was the point to 
which the roads from Kansas and from Cheyenne approached. 
Now it has become the centre from which new railroads diverge. 
Southerly the Denver and Rio Grande has advanced far on its way 
to Mexico, forming connections on the line, with the Atchison, 
Topeka and Santa Fe joining it from the east. South-westerly 
the Colorado Central has grasped the oldest mineral regions. 
Westerly the Denver and South Park is looking steadily towards 
Salt Lake City, 450 miles to the west. From all these, lateral 
branches fertilize the productive capital of this new State of the 
Union, as the streams from its irrigating canals permeate 
its soil. 

With gold and silver in its depths, corn and fruits upon its 
surface, tens of thousands of cattle and sheep roaming upon its 



288 THE ROUND TRIP. 

hills and plains ; above all, with health wafted in every breath 
of its invigorating air, it needs no prophet to predict the future 
of Colorado. 

The stormy season of Denver is when it seldom rains. It 
would have been a pleasure to close our umbrellas on those 
October days and to welcome a deluge upon our heads. A dust- 
storm such as we experienced would have been harder upon 
the animals under the care of Noah than the great flood. 
Forty days' dust like this would have effectually killed every 
man, beast and creeping thing within, as well as without, the ark. 
It penetrated the houses so that the color of the carpets was a 
uniform gray ; it mixed with the food and was inhaled by the 
throat and lungs till the mucous membrane became like sand- 
paper and the voice between sneezes was like the caw of a raven. 
Nor was it common dust. It was alkaline, as universal redness 
of the eyes testified in addition to all the other miseries it 
inflicted. 

The Denver optimists said that it was a special occasion. 
They never knew any thing like it before, and it would probably 
never happen again. The pessimists, and there are always some 
of them everywhere, said " that was just the way of it all the 
year round." 

One should remain here a year in order to give a candid 
weather report. As we had not that time to spare, we are 
obliged to rely upon the mean of the metereological reports 
and statements of the people. From these it appears that it is 
sometimes very hot in midsummer, the mercury attaining oc- 
casionally I GO degrees in the shade, and it is sometimes very 
cold in winter, the glass showing 30 degrees below zero. But as 
these extremes are seldom reached, summer may be rated at 75 
and winter at 40 degrees. 



RAILROADS. 289 

Rain falls freely at the opening and the close of summer, but 
seldom, almost never, from October to May, although snow is not 
infrequent. This condition of things will suit those who desire 
a " dry climate." But all the advantage derived from this dry- 
ness would seem to be counterbalanced by the dust storms. 

Despite this almost intolerable nuisance, thousands of invalids 
make Denver a winter resort. Over five thousand feet above 
the sea level, the air is bracing and pure, dust always excepted, 
and this requisite for people with lung diseases, combined with 
the comforts of civilization afforded by hotels, stores and society, 
induce those who place, as we think, too much dependence upon 
such home luxuries, to settle themselves here to live or die. 

We left Denver one morning for the south, on the Denver 
and Rio Grande Railroad, a cheaply constructed " narrow gauge," 
but a profitable investment for the present, and of well founded 
expectations for the future. The grade is of easy ascent for fifty- 
two miles to the "divide," along the banks of the South Platte, 
overlooking a valley on the right made fertile by canals which 
everywhere draw water from higher levels for irrigation. On the 
left was a wide stretch of pasture land, unbroken by forest or hill 
as far as the eastern horizon. In the valley the settlers grow 
their corn and grass, and on these boundless uplands they 
pasture their cattle which divide the grass with herds of antelope. 
These were so abundant and unsuspicious of evil intent that 
hundreds of them came down almost within pistol shot from the 
train. 

At the " divide " there is a pretty lake of two or three acres, 
supplied by living springs in its centre. It has two outlets, one 
at its northern and the other at its southern border. The former 
meanders down into the Platte, the latter into the Arkansas, and 
after travelling thousands of miles apart in far different directions 

19 



2go THE ROUND TRIP. 

meet again in the Mississippi, and journey in each other's embrace 
to the Gulf of Mexico. 

Passing numerous liamlets and ranclies we arrived soon after 
noon at Colorado Springs, seventy-five miles south of Denver. 
This misnomer, for it has no springs, is a tastefully laid out settle- 
ment of between three or four thousand inhabitants, with good 
hotels, numerous churches, shops, banks, a high school, an 
incipient university, a deaf and dumb asylum, and all the con- 
comitants of an advanced civilization. As a place of residence 
it is every way superior to Denver, and for invalids has incom- 
parable advantages. Though 5986 feet above the sea level, the 
climate is far more equable, and its neighborhood to the springs 
from which it takes its name gives it a sanitary pre-eminence. 
It is the centre of trade for the large agricultural districts, and 
derives much of its prosperity from the mines, which it supplies 
with merchandise and provisions paid for in gold and silver. 

The first attempt at mining was made in 1858, by a few 
straggling bands from the east and west, who had heard of the 
marvellous richness of the region about Pike's Peak. That 
'fever soon abated, but new discoveries drew greater multitudes ; 
and when the Kansas Pacific Railroad was completed ten years 
later, mining was a regular and increasing industry. Until lately 
'the mines on the Colorado Central Railroad have furnished 
most of the supply, as that part of the territory was settled at an 
earlier date, and was easily accessible from Denver. For the 
same reason, stock raising and farming have made more advance 
in this region. Yet this is but a small portion of the 106,000 
square miles comprising the State, which until the last twelve 
years was absolutely unexplored. 

In 1873 some adventurous miners penetrated beyond the 
" snowy range " that divides the sources of the waters running 



ENTHUSIASTIC MCALLISTER. 291 

into the Pacific and tlie Atlantic, returning with almost incredible 
stories of the wealth of those mountains. This produced as wild 
an excitement as lately prevailed about the Black Hills of 
Dakota, and it was complicated with similar difficulties. The 
western part of Colorado had been kept as a reservation for the 
Ute Indians, and it was much more valuable to them for agricul- 
tural purposes than the bleak mountains of the Sioux could 
possibly be to them. Fortunately the Utes were more tractable, 
and they wisely accepted from the government a fair price for the 
right of miners to occupy that part of the reservation suitable for 
mining, while the Indians still enjoy all that is of use to them 
for cultivation. 

This new mining region is the famous San Juan country, 
which is expected to eclipse all previous discoveries. It is one 
hundred and seventy-five miles long from north to south, and one 
hundred miles wide, lying chiefly in Lake and La Plata counties. 
Major McAllister, a prominent citizen of Colorado Springs, to 
whom I am indebted for much valuable information, has investi- 
gated the facts connected with San Juan, so far as they have been 
reported, and is very enthusiastic in his belief of their just foun- 
dation. 

" Gold and silver, sir ! " he exclaimed, " there are mountains, 
yes, solid mountains of it ; you absolutely stumble over rocks of 
solid silver. No other mineral country approaches it in value ! 
To my certain knowledge there is enough of the precious metal 
in sight to pay the national debts of the whole world. You do 
not dig for it as elsewhere. It is all over the surface in every 
direction, in ridges of rock a hundred feet wide and many 
miles in length. I have seen a specimen weighing more pounds 
than I could lift, knocked off from one of these surface rocks ! " 

With proper allowance, the general idea obtained from Major 



2g2 THE ROUND TRIP. 

McAllister was that the whole of that country is traversed in 
every direction by seams of silver ore, in number practically 
unlimited, in width from two feet to three hundred, and in rich- 
ness from fifty dollars to five thousand dollars to the ton. 

We took the stage for Manitou, the real fountain of the 
mineral waters of Colorado, distant six miles from these nominal 
" springs." Half way, we passed through the old city of Colo- 
rado, built nineteen years ago for the capital of the territory. 
But misfortune or mismanagement followed it from its birth. 
The capital was removed by political adroitness to Denver, 
and when the railroad was contemplated the new colony at the 
" Springs " offered superior inducements for changing its line 
from a direct course. The city of Colorado was built on the piles 
of false expectations, and is now crumbling into the dust of 
oblivion. Large hotels were erected for guests, who never 
occupied their rooms, stores were built for goods they never 
received, banks for the deposit of money never entrusted to their 
vaults, and churches for swallows only to nestle under their eaves. 
It wears the melancholy air of Pisa without its magnificence. 

Hidden under a lofty range of mountains, looking majestically 
down upon it from the west, with the towering summit of Pike's 
Peak standing sentry over the lesser giants of the air, is the little 
villageof Manitou, the real Colorado Springs. It has been called 
the Chamounix of America, but Chamounix might be proud to be 
styled the Manitou of Switzerland. 

Here is a land of lights and shadows. The morning sun 
streams through the valley by which we approach, and warms it 
at noon with its kindly but not overpowering heat, which the 
freshness of the air always tempers ; and the evening sun setting 
behind these overtopping cliffs, projects their shadows upon the 
brighter scenes with a softness and beauty indescribable. 



MANITOU. 293 

It were far better if those who come here to regain their 
health were compelled to live out of doors or in tents, but the 
more than comfortable hotels offer inducements not to be resisted. 
Three of these are of the first class, equalling the great Saratoga 
caravanseries in luxury, while second-class hotels and boarding- 
houses are open for people of moderate means. 

The springs have already acquired a world-wide reputation. 
They are not unlike the fountains of Vichy or Kissingen ; the 
waters cool and sparkling with gas, holding in solution a strong 
body of soda and iron. Dr. Solly, an English physician of high 
repute, has recently published a pamphlet analysis of the waters. 
Many of his countrymen have settled in Colorado, who have 
come here to invest their capital in loans, which they can readily 
do at a high rate of interest, securing a far better income than 
they can get from their three per cent, consols at home. They 
are captivated with a genuine country life, which they can enjoy 
only on- a small scale in their little island. Here they establish 
themselves on ranches, roaming wherever they please the vast 
plains abounding with game, and occasionally looking after their 
investments which yearly roll up into fortunes, while in the mean 
time they live in the enjoyment of a healthy and pleasurable 
existence. Some of them are the owners of neat cottages in and 
near Manitou, tastefully built and surrounded by green lawns, 
enclosed with rustic fences. 

Nothing is more pleasing to an Englishman than to imagine 
himself " lord of the manor." Everywhere among the mountains 
there are natural parks, far surpassing in beauty and magnificence 
any that belong to the British nobility and gentry in their own 
kingdom. 

Here the Englishman of moderate means at once becomes an 
aristocrat. He builds for himself a log cabin, set with taste 



294 "^^^ ROUND TRIP. 

and an eye to the picturesque, on some sheltered spot on one of 
the vast domains "taken up" by him without cost. Here he 
establishes himself as lord of all he surveys ; buys cattle and 
sheep, and commences a business in which a "gentleman " can 
engage without a feeling of self-abasement, getting out of his 
employment, pleasure and a profit to be added to his accruing 
interest. He gradually becomes Americanized by adding man- 
hood to his gentility, and in course of time proves a valuable 
citizen of the great republic. If he can gather a little settlement 
about him and become the patron of a tiny Episcopal church, 
with a rector who will dine with him on Sundays, he is supremely 
happy, comparing himself to the proudest duke or prince of his 
native land \ for with his broad acres, his horses, his dogs, gun 
and parson, what can an Englishman ask more ! 

This settlement of Manitou was founded under the auspices 
of the " Colorado Springs Improvement Co." They acquired 
possession of the whole valley by taking up, pre-emption and 
purchase of claims, at little or no cost. They have laid out roads 
and shady walks, and in other respects adorned what nature had 
already beautified. They either own shares in the hotels or have 
sold the land on which to build them. Thus they have made a 
profitable investment for themselves, and have become entitled 
to the gratitude of the ever increasing crowd of visitors. 

About five hundred strangers, not only from other points in 
the State, but from all directions, settle here during the season. 
The fame of the springs has gone out through all the world. In 
our estimation they rank next to the soda springs of Idaho. In 
four days they can be reached from Boston, New York, Philadel- 
phia or Washington, a less time than was formerly occupied in 
travelling to Saratoga from either of these cities ; and when 
Manitou is once reached, the object desired by invalids and true 



MANITOU. 295 

pleasure seekers is attained. Even Europeans, having heard its 
fame, are willing to tempt the dangers of the seas, and instead of 
resorting to the sleepy spas of Germany, come to Colorado to 
view its glorious scenery, to breathe its life-giving atmosphere, 
and to drink its health-bestowing waters. 

After having tried all the resources of the pharmacopia, the 
nostrums of quacks, the reputed virtue of Bourbon whiskey, the 
climate of Florida and Nassau, and experiencing relief from none 
of these expedients, attenuated consumptives come to Colorado. 
Alas, they too often come to die. For it is certain that in the 
last stages of the disease the stimulating temperature of this 
region almost invariably proves fatal. The true physician is he 
who unselfishly counsels the afflicted, in the first stages of the 
disease, to abandon drugs, business, and home, and fly at once 
to the high plains and mountains of the west. The wisest invalids 
are those who come here with something to do as well as to be 
and to suffer. Occupation distracts the mind from self, and offers 
the best prospects of relief. The man with consumptive ten- 
dencies should sell out his possessions in the east and remove for 
life to Colorado. Here let him establish himself in business, and 
the best business he can find will be on the open plains or among 
the mountains, where he must daily ride to look after his cattle 
and sheep. 

No one has described this region with more enthusiasm 
than Mrs. Lippincott (Grace Greenwood). She has done for the 
beauties what Major Powell has done for the sublimities, and is 
credible while he is almost incredible. I mean that while allow- 
ing for certain female poetic tendencies of embellishment, with a 
pencil dipped in couleur derosc, Grace is to be generally believed, 
as she would scarcely draw the long bow, when others are so con- 
stantly hunting over the same ground. On the contrary, the gal- 



296 THE ROUND TRIP. 

lant major has" told such fearful stories of hair-breadth escapes, 
that no one, at least until his Munchausenism is forgotten, will 
be likely to follow in his tracks. Mrs. Lippincott has proved her 
sincerity by building for herself a "love of a cottage," shaded by 
cottonwoods, entwined with clematis, on the banks of Fountain 
Creek, the rapid little stream whose ceaseless music is her daily 
and nightly serenade. 

Two miles below the town, the " Garden of the Gods " is ap- 
proached from a turn of the road leading over a rough path to 
the " Gates of Paradise," which fDrm high battlements at the 
entrance. Why this area of curious sandstone formation should 
have received its title is not apparent. The name is calculated 
to raise different expectations from those eventually realized. 
There are hundreds of acres of hard red soil, with here and there 
patches of wild grass, disappointing our anticipations of shaded 
walks and beds of flowers. But the tall fantastic columns, turned 
by the lathe of glaciers thousands of years ago, are impressive 
monuments of the unknown past. These tower above our heads 
hundreds of feet and are of endless variety, of grotesque shape 
and outline. 

The canons in the neighborhood of Manitou, particularly that 
of Cheyenne, are grand and beautiful. An unending variety of 
walks and rides lead upward to the mountain peaks. All 
around Manitou within an afternoon's ride are scenes like these 
approached by gallops over the " Mesa " or high plains, where 
the fresh air and distant views add delight to the continual sur- 
prises of the road. 



ASCENT OF PIKE'S PEAK. 297 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Ascent of Pike's Peak — The Hermit of the Mountain — 
The Signal Station — A Hunting Expedition — On the 
Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. 

There are two ways of making the ascent of Pike's Peak 
from Manitou. One is by following an ill-defined bridle path over 
a very rough country to the " timber line,'' where vegetation 
ceases, and then scrambling up an almost perpendicular slope of 
about eighteen hundred feet to the summit. Although the rocks 
are broken and slippery the enterprise would be a matter of small 
account, if the start were to be made at this point from a sea 
level. But it must be considered that the end of the " timber 
line" is already between twelve and thirteen thousand feet high, 
and every step is more fatiguing than a hundred on the plains. 

The longer but more easy method is by the government trail, 
following the signal telegraph wire. Nor is the length to be 
regretted, for that route is vastly more picturesque than the short 
and painful one. 

The ladies, for once, were willing to allow men to precede 
them, but they accompanied us about half the distance through 
the prettiest part of the scenery. Leaving the hotel at early 



298 THE ROUND TRIP. 

morning we rode rapidly in the cool air over the Mesa of six 
miles, between Manitou and the mouth of Bear Creek Canon. 
Here the wagon track comes to an end and a tortuous trail be- 
gins, crossing and re-crossing the stream continually, over rocks 
and through dense underbrush, beneath overhanging cliffs and 
through forests of cedar and pine. 

The roar of tumbling cascades subsides into the rippling of 
comparative levels, and alternates with noisy uproar like the 
varying melody of the organ in its dulcet tones and deep diapason. 
We wound along for miles until we came to a zig-zag path cut 
in the sides of a high mountain descending to meet its opposite 
neighbor abruptly in the stream. 

To those of us who first arrived at the dizzy height it was a 
curious sight to behold the long straggling line of our companions, 
creeping up the winding trail, clinging like flies to the sides of a 
wall. A light snow had fallen the night before, feathering the 
pines and frosting the rocks, adding greatly to the picture, but 
somewhat endangering the foothold of our animals in places 
where the road was but three feet wide, and they might fall by a 
misstep a thousand feet. It was better not to touch the reins, 
for to the unaccustomed it was a risk even to look down. Leaving 
the beasts to their instincts. Excelsior was now the watch-word. 

The danger past, a lovely scene opened before us. As the 
Hudson spreads above the Palisades into the Tappan Zee, and 
contracts again towards the Catskills, so here the pass had 
scooped a plain out of the surrounding hills, and left a natural 
park for miles of comparative level. Such spots as these are 
often selected for cattle and sheep ranches. 

But the owner of the park had squatted here, pre-empted and 
purchased the whole of it for a different purpose. His only 
desire was for a "lodge in some vast wilderness," where he might 



THE HERMIT OF THE MOUNTAIN. 299 

seclude himself from the world and never see any more of his 
numerous relations, whose names are Jones. 

By actual measurement the lodge of Mr. Jones is 10,080 feet 
in the air. He has perched himself there for summer and winter, 
dwelling alone in a neat log cabin with windows of the largest 
plate glass, from which he can look boldly out upon the world 
while the world cannot look in upon him. Evidently Mr. Jones 
is a peculiar man. We were sorry that he was not at home, but 
were glad that, in accordance with the universal practice of ran- 
cheros, he had no lock upon his door, for by this time, although 
the air was clear and the sun bright, the ample fire-place of his 
mansion offered inducements not to be resisted. We made our- 
selves at home, kindling a roaring fire from the abundance of 
cedar logs at hand, giving out an odor like a hecatomb of lead- 
pencils. In the silent blessings which it is hoped our grateful 
hearts bestowed upon our luncheon, we did not fail to remember 
the hermit, who in the attempt to hide himself from his fellow- 
creatures had made a few of them so happy. 

We were ten miles on our way, one half the distance to the 
Peak, and now sending back the ladies with an escort, three of us 
continued our upward journey. At the farther end of the 
park, the mountains drew together and enclosed us in their grasp 
until, as we emerged from the dense shrubbery, they opened 
once more and exposed to view on either side and beyond a 
scene of utter desolation. 

Many years ago, ere the foot of the explorer had crossed the 
wilderness, a wide spread conflagration had raged. The Indian 
camp fires or the lightnings of heaven might have kindled it, 
but it was a melancholy sight, whatever may have been the cause. 
Tens of thousands of acres of a once living forest were reduced 
to an area of blackened stumps, and the fallen timber lay thickly 



300 THE ROUND TRIP. 

as far as the eye could reach. Through five miles of this 
wretched field of desolation, we ascended to the Lake House, a 
log cabin erected for the convenience of tourists and the supply 
of the Government corps stationed at the Peak. A clear, trans- 
parent basin of water of twelve acres is here a perpetual spring 
from which the streams flow down into the plains. We were 
told that the water is so cold that even trout cannot live within 
it, but as that useful experiment had never been tried, we 
scarcely credited the information. If the keeper of the shanty 
had been sufficiently enterprising to stock the lake with fish, he 
could with much less cost to himself have provided us with 
something better than fried ham, for which we angled in a sea of 
grease. 

Here our ponies, who are as accustomed to the route as camels 
to the desert, exercised the same forethought. They knew that 
they would get no more oats or water until the next day, and ac- 
cordingly ate and drank their fill. As we started onward we 
passed through a green timber line not reached by the great fire, 
encircling the summit like a garland. While crossing this belt a 
covey of mountain grouse whirred overhead, giving each of us a 
successful shot. Tying the game to our saddles we were happy 
in having secured a breakfast for the morning. 

Then we came to the limit of the " timber-line," and by a 
scarcely perceptible trail wound our way among huge rocks for 
the rest of the journey. Colder grew the air as the day drew to 
a close, and we urged our tired beasts along that we might reach 
the Peak before darkness should come upon us. Our arrival 
could not have been at a more favorable moment, for as we 
stood upon the summit, the last rays of the sun were streaming 
upward from the Utah mountains, more than a hundred miles 
away in the west, gilding their clearly outlined summits, and re- 



THE SIGNAL STATION. 301 

fleeting changing colors from their snowy ranges to the skies. 
Then evening drew its gray shades over the vast panorama, and 
we stood alone upon the mountain with a world below us sleep- 
ing in the silent night. 

We were cordially welcomed at their little stone shanty by 
Lieut. Brown and his comrade of the U. S. Signal Corps. They 
warned us not to approach the stove hastily, in coming in from 
a temperature of eight degrees below the freezing point, as 
others who had neglected this precaution had been attacked by 
apoplexy, endangering their lives. 

Our first business was to carry some faggots to the brow of 
the peak overhanging the settlement of Manitou, and to kindle 
a bonfire by which our friends, 10,000 feet below, were assured 
of our safe arrival ; and then we gradually accustomed ourselves 
to the heat within doors. The peak is 14,216 feet above the 
level of the ocean, and Lieut. Brown said that next year it would 
be seventy feet higher by the new measurement which, having 
already elevated the plains, will push the mountain still further 
up. It was high enough for us without this complement. 

We experienced some peculiar sensations difficult to relate 
or even to remember. A little walk, if walk it could be called, 
where we stumbled over disjointed fragments of rocks, shortened 
our breath almost to suffocation, and when at night we endeav- 
ored to sleep, although we were told that the attempt would be 
useless on the first experiment, the hour of semi-wakeful dozing 
was as unpleasant as can be imagined. 

Queer fancies took possession of our brains. Every thing, 
including ourselves, seemed to be afloat in the air. New York 
and Boston rose up and danced about in an altitude of immeas- 
urable leagues, with sun, moon and stars all round them. When 
we gasped for air, as we were often obliged to do, our lungs and 



302 THE ROUND TRIP. 

chests seemed like pliable India-rubber bellows, expanding to 
the size of the body of an elephant. 

The officers stationed here at first experienced similar incon- 
veniences and hallucinations, but had gradually become accus- 
tomed to the novelty and necessities of their condition. For- 
tunately their time is much occupied in noting and recording 
observations, and telegraphing them to Washington ; otherwise 
existence would be intolerable. 

Here might be a favorable place for the cure of intemper- 
ance, for the smallest draught of alcoholic liquor produces nau- 
sea at once, and gives a forcible hint in favor of total abstinence. 

The exact latitude of the Peak is 38 degrees 48 minutes north, 
and longitude 104 degrees 59 minutes west of Greenwich, as 
determined by Lieut. Brown. His scientific instruments for as- 
certaining the velocity of the wind, humidity of the air, rain-fall, 
cold and heat, and other matters considered worthy of daily 
reports, were shown and explained, and we listened to an exceed- 
ingly interesting lecture, illustrated by charts and diagrams, ex- 
planatory of the theory of storms and probabilities, a synopsis of 
which is read in the daily papers by thousands who never give a 
thought to the wonderful agencies of science by which they are 
evolved. This service was commenced in 1868. Then " Old 
Probabilities " was in his infancy, and for lack of a thorough 
education committed many blunders. Possibilities would have 
been a better title for him, but now probabilities amount almost 
to certainties, and soon will become absolute truths. Every vil- 
lage newspaper chronicles a prophecy of invaluable worth to the 
farmer, and to all the millions who daily look to these records for 
calculations of business or pleasure, and what a debt of gratitude 
the seamen on our coasts and lakes owe to the storm signals of 
this faithful monitor! 



THE SIGNAL STATION. 303 

The highest temperature on the mountains last year was 
reached in June, when the mercury stood at 57 degrees above, 
and the lowest was in February, when it marked 37 degrees below 
zero. Cold, however, depends more upon the wind than upon 
the thermometer. Late in the evening of our visit the glass 
stood at twenty-two degrees ; but as the air was calm we were 
not uncomfortable out of doors without overcoats, although 
when the wind is violent the piercing blast is unendurable. 

Snow is scarcely a respecter of seasons, for on July fourth it 
fell to the depth of fifteen inches, whereas in the winter it is all 
blown away, excepting the provision caught among the rocks, 
which serves for the only supply of water all the year round to 
the hardy inhabitants of the hut. The velocity of the wind is 
occasionally one hundred miles an hour, and at such times no 
one would envy the signal corps the scanty pay they receive for 
the invaluable service they perform. 

There was no signal corps in the days when it was said, 
"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound 
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it 
goeth." Now, the desert of the west is known to be the place of 
its birth, and science has traced its almost invariable course 
from west to east, with a precision equal to the knowledge of the 
ocean tides. 

Although the cold was intense, the mercury being but little 
above zero, and the wind whistling fiercely around the corner of 
our stone cabin, we were up and out betimes to see the rising 
of the sun. As the dawn approached, the gray chaos of the 
world below shaped itself into lesser mountains and plains 
painted in the sombre colors of mingled day and night. Then 
light glimmered and brightened on the eastern horizon, the 
dark tints of early dawn came out in rapid and changing dashes of 



304 THE ROUND TRIP. 

brightness over the snows of the mountains, the green forests of 
the canons and the boundless russet plains. The sunset of the 
previous evening impressed us with majest}', but the darkness 
soon gathering tinged our admiration with melancholy. Far 
more glorious was this clear sunrise glowing with the promise of 
a perfect day. 

All our anticipations were more than realized ; and with 
many thanks to our kind entertainers, we began the descent. 
The famished animals, expectant of water and oats at the Lake 
House, skipped nimbly over the rocks and fallen logs, and when 
refreshed finished the journey with spirit, bringing us back to 
Manitou early in the afternoon. 

I have not space to enumerate all the pleasant excursions 
taken from that delightful watering-place. The mountains are 
intersected by romantic canons, through which leap the streams 
pouring at last into the Arkansas. One of the wildest of these 
is the Ute Pass, leading to some of the mining regions in the 
west. 

By this canon Manitou Park is approached, distant twenty 
miles on an elevated plain one thousand feet above the village. 
This is a property belonging to Dr. Bell, an English gentleman, 
who has erected a comfortable hotel for the accommodation of 
summer visitors. In the winter it is a place of occasional resort 
for sportsmen, deer and other game abounding in the surround- 
ing mountains. 

Having formed a hunting party, we took advantage of a 
wintry day of the autumn to visit it. The seasons are singularly 
changeable in these regions. At times in November and Decem- 
ber the snow covers the ground in the valleys and the frost seals 
up the streams, every thing betokening a Siberian winter. On 
the very next day, perhaps, nature is freed from her icy fetters, 



A HUNTING EXPEDITION 305 

and all is genial summer again. Tlie days of cold are really the 
most enjoyable, for the effect of snow upon the mountains and of 
the icicles pendent from the trees is exceedingly beautiful. 

Ascending the " Ute Pass " on horseback, our camp equipage 
and provisions followed in a wagon. We were fitted out for the 
capture of herds of deer and antelope, to say nothing of expected 
grouse and rabbits, and it may be mentioned in the outset that 
we were disappointed in our anticipations in this respect, our 
spoils, after three days' hunting, amounting to one deer, five jack 
rabbits and a black squirrel. Nevertheless, we had no reason 
to complain, as we were compensated tor this small result in 
healthy exercise and the wonderful scenery. 

Arriving at evening, a blazing fire of pine logs gave a cheer- 
ful air to the almost deserted hotel, or rather to the adjoining 
ranche-house, which is occupied by the family in the winter. 
Mr. Thornton, the superintendent of the property, is an English- 
man, and as Englishmen always bring their habits with them, we 
were reminded of the hospitality of British country squires on 
Christmas holidays. An immense round of beef graced the 
table, and venison in various forms kept it goodly company. 
We were waited upon by English servants who asked us what 
we would " be pleased to 'ave," and altogether the combination 
of English style and American backwoods life formed a pretty 
picture, lighted as it was by the cheerful glow from the ample 
stone fireplace. 

If we did not kill much game, we sang many songs, told 
many stories, cracked many jokes, and when we rolled into our 
blankets at night, we slept the sleep of the weary, more soundly 
than others slumber in cities on their beds of ease. 

As Mr. Thornton carried on the farm upon an expensive as 
well as extensive scale, he had a numerous retinue of laborers to 



3o6 THE ROUND TRIP. 

care for the cattle and crops. We all messed together, the land- 
lord and his guests at the head of the long table, and a dozen of 
his dependants at the other end. We thought of Cedric the 
Saxon and his family, so graphically described in Ivanhoe, 
when England, like Colorado, was comparatively a new country, 
for there was a bonhommie and roughness in the men of those 
times like our own grade of civilization in the west. 

By day we roamed the mountains for game, and at night 
came home to enjoy the ample repast and comforts of the 
enormous fireside. Let no future sportsman be discouraged, 
however, by our want of success. We were a month too early 
for the game, as the deer were still upon the mountains. By and 
by, we were told, they would come down to the park, and even 
to the plains about Manitou ; moreover be it considered, we 
were all amateurs, and I verily believe that if some of us had 
seen a buck he would have stared us out of countenance. 

Leaving Manitou as we journeyed south on the Denver and 
Rio Grande Railroad, the country appeared to be better watered, 
both naturally and artificially. Farm ranches with large fields 
that had apparently yielded abundant crops, joined each other 
for miles along the way, and here and there were to be seen col- 
lections of pretty white frame houses, not unlike New England 
villages. All this land is fertilized by various little streams, 
leisurely doing good on their way to the Arkansas. 

Forty-three miles from our starting point, brought us to 
Pueblo. 



PUEBLO. 



307 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Pueblo — The Denver and Rio Grande, and the Atchison, 
ToPEKA AND Santa Fe Railroads — Canon City — The 
Grand Canon of the Arkansas — Denver again — Colo- 
rado Central Railroad — Idaho Springs — Georgetown — 
General Grant's Drive — Return to the Line of the 
Union Pacific. 

Pueblo was the first place of more than ephemeral existence 
we had entered. It claims an antiquity of a far greater boast 
than the two decades which are the longest measure of modern 
settlements. 

It was a Mexican town, as its name indicates. When our 
countrymen obtained possession of the unknown regions ceded 
by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the pioneers found on this 
spot a collection of adobe huts, a Catholic church and a pul- 
peria, which are the elements of a Mexican town, as one or two 
frame buildings and a billiard saloon are of an American city. 
Why the name was not changed to Smithville or Brownopolis 
does not appear. For once we were out of names, and Pueblo 
was adopted into the family without a new christening. Its 
*' greasers " became free and enlightened Americans by a stroke 



3o8 THE ROUND TRIP. 

of a pen, as the negroes rose to that proud distinction by the 
fifteenth amendment, and, like them, they have since aided in 
making our laws, and assessing property-holders for taxes. Indi- 
ans and Chinese will come into possession of the franchise 
next, if they can be calculated upon to vote for the party in 
power. 

But Pueblo has been rescued from the hands of its original 
inhabitants. The Denver and Rio Grande Railway passes 
through it from the north, and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa 
Fe has reached it from the east. Already it is the second town 
of the State in number of inhabitants, and rivals in hope the 
settlement of Colorado Springs. Here too is established the 
Central Improvement Company, whose profits are invested in 
ditching, grading, laying out town lots, building school-houses, 
and making ready for the immense population expected to pour 
into it as soon as business is lively again. 

When one of these western railroads commences its travels, no 
prophet can tell where it will bring up. It goes on its mission 
of civilization, comfort and wealth, stretching itself in length and 
ramifying right and left until it spreads like arteries and veins 
over the body of the land. 

So this enterprising railroad company, hearing of coal mines 
to the west, have projected and completed a branch to Canon 
City, along the banks of the Arkansas. As we turned off upon 
this road from Pueblo, our way through the canon was a delight- 
ful contrast to the uninteresting road over the plains. Passing 
a few miles beyond the coal mines, which by means of this 
branch are made productive for the region round about, we 
arrived in the evening at Canon City, and were quartered at a 
hotel which might have seemed comfortable if we had not been 
spoiled by the luxury at Manitou. 



CANON CITY. 309 

The bright sunlight of Colorado, where clouds and storms 
are rare, displayed in the morning a pretty little town nestled 
under the mountains at the outlet of the Great Canon of the 
Arkansas. 

Canon City derives its name from this wonderful gorge in the 
cliffs, and owes its prosperity to its facilities for supplying the 
mines of the upper regions. Its mineral springs are not unlike 
those of Manitou, soda and iron being the chief ingredients ; 
and it may be safely affirmed that they are good for all imagin- 
ar}'- diseases. 

When the country is more developed, and better hotels and 
lodging-houses are furnished, doubtless the advantages of Canon 
City as a health resort will commend themselves. Behind the 
town the mountains rise abruptly, forbidding a further progress 
of the railroad over an insurmountable grade. But it has been 
estimated that the road could be continued through the Grand 
Canon, eleven and a half miles, by being chiselled out of the 
rocks, at a cost a little short of $100,000 per mile. 

The cost scarcely enters into consideration in view of the 
recent developments in Leadville, which almost justify the wildest 
dreams of the exuberant Major McAllister. Leadville is now 
the great objective point to which all the Colorado railroads 
are extending, each eager for its share of the prey. The 
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, having leased the Canon City 
branch of the Denver and Rio Grande road, are actually carry- 
ing it in through the pass, presently to be described. 

In treating of Colorado, I realize the truth of a remark made 
by a friend who has just returned, " If one undertakes to show 
the exact situations of things there, he must print his sketches 
on the day they are written." A year ago we would have 
said that seven or eight million dollars would be its annual 



310 THE ROUND TRIP. 

yield of silver and gold. As these pages are going to press, 
we have from a reliable source the following estimate of its 
prosperity. 

" During the last few days estimates have been shown, made by 
old miners, of the gold and silver product of Colorado for iSyg. 
The lowest is about as follows : — 

Leadville and Ten Mile $12,000,000 

Silver Cliff, Rosita, &c 5,000,000 

Gilpin County 4,000,000 

Clear Creek County 4,500,000 

San Juan County 1,000,000 

Park, Summit, and Boulder 1,500,000 

Total $28,000,000 

" This wx)uld be more than three times the yield of any pre- 
vious year. But so good an authority as Senator Chaffee is of 
the opinion that the output at Leadville alone, from the time that 
a railroad gets there, will reach $3,000,000 a month. Whatever 
the results of this year's mining shall be, depends more upon the 
milling and transportation facilities than any thing else. It is 
agreed upon all sides that the ease with which the carbonates are 
mined, and the wonderfully rich manner in which they are show- 
ing up, make it no exaggeration to expect a bullion output of all 
the way from $20,000,000 to $40,000,000 from Colorado this 
year," 

We took a wagon to ascend by a zig-zag road to the top of 
the mountains, through which the Arkansas pours its waters 
from the plains nearly twelve miles above. To reach this emi- 
nence, whence the best view is obtained, is a labor lightened by 
varying glimpses of distant snow-capped mountains and passages 
through the natural parks with which the country abounds. 
These are the abodes of elk and deer in abundance, although 
the enterprising rancheros are encroaching on the wild domain 



THE GRAND CAAON. 31 1 

for their own cattle and sheep. The side-hills abound in timber, 
and the levels are covered with luxuriant grass in summer, turn- 
ing to standing hay in the winter, thus offering abundant pas- 
turage all the year. 

We made the ten miles in a little more than three hours, and 
came to the summit table-land. Between us and the plain beyond 
was a yawning chasm, of such fearful and precipitous depth that 
we were brought to a sudden stand, from which we stared into 
the gulf below, appalled at its immensity. To look down perpen- 
dicularly two thousand five hundred feet, was something to make 
the brain whirl with dizziness. 

The Arkansas, no insignificant river as we found it when 
crossing it, threaded its way along like a narrow ribbon dropped 
from these aerial heights, and the tall trees, as the glass revealed 
them to be, swept down by the current and piled here and there 
on the rocks, were to our unaided vision like handspikes or 
walking-sticks. We rolled some of the largest rocks that all our 
appliances could bring to the edge of the cliff into the river. 
When they reached the water they dropped noiselessly as fine 
shot into a basin ; all things, and we ourselves more than all, 
lessening to nothing in our august surroundings. 

We strayed from one point of observation to another for miles 
along the cliffs, catching the sunlight touches and the dark 
shadows on the winding walls of this wonderful gorge, and tracing 
the stream in its tortuous course, sometimes black as night and 
again glistening like a silver streak in the sunshine. There are 
photographs of the Grand Canon of the Arkansas that may be 
purchased, but the photographs of art cannot overcome its per- 
verse propensity to cheat in proportions. The photograph of 
the memory is distinct, clear and indelible, and such will ever be 
our recollection of this stupendous scene. 



312 THE ROUND TRIP. 

From Pueblo, the point of return on the route north to 
Denver, the railroad continues southerly through Trinidad, to 
which place the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe have extended 
their road from La Junta, proposing to go on toward the Rio 
Grande, looking, like it, for a terminus on the Pacific. The 
resources upon which it depends are the pastoral and farming 
lands of the new country, and the business that increasing immi- 
gration will bring. 

These references to various railroad ramifications may perplex 
the tourist, but wherever he goes in Colorado he will soon find 
some railroad on which he can travel in any direction and 
for any distance. 

First impressions of Denver were not favorable, for they were 
of dust in the air, dust on the floors, dust everywhere. Scarcely 
were they blown away when our second impressions were given 
in snow. Not a good healthy snow storm, such as in Vermont 
gives promise of the music of sleigh bells and warm comfort 
under buffalo robes ; but each flake brought with it a drop of 
water, and when they reached the ground they carpeted the 
streets and sidewalks with gray slushy mud, unpleasant to look 
at, and unhealthy to wade through. Yet Denver is the winter 
resort of invalids. It was the middle of November, and they were 
pouring in from the springs and ranches where they had passed 
the summer and autumn. Hotels and boarding-houses were full 
of them. Ghost-like they glided through the corridors and 
shivered in the parlors and at the dining tables. Waiters were 
seen on the staircases carrying meals to the rooms of those who 
would never leave them again, and the direful echos of hollow 
coughs resounded through the halls. On sunny days, pale men 
and women crept out upon the balconies, or were propped by 
tender hands in pillowed easy chairs to bask in the warm light. 



COLORADO CENTRAL RALLROAD. 313 

Just then the slaughter-house cure was a favorite treatment at 
Denver. Every day the death of oxen and cows was anticipated 
as renewed life to men and women. When the doors of the 
slaughter-houses were opened, a throng rushed in ready to catch 
the ebbing life of the doomed animals. As the warm red current 
gushes forth, glasses were held to be filled from the stream by 
people who stood around like the habitues of Congress Spring, 
to have their tumblers replenished. The blood of beasts is thus 
better utilized than in ancient sacrifices, if indeed its virtue is not 
imaginary. 

The Colorado Central was the first railroad to radiate from 
Denver after the Kansas Pacific had reached it from the east, 
and assured the development of the territory. To the Ames 
family of Boston belongs the inception of this undertaking, as to 
one of them, whose meritorious enterprise will be remembered 
after the unjust obloquy which has been attached to his name 
shall have passed away, may be attributed the most efficient pro- 
motion of the Great Union Pacific. 

The Messrs. Ames carried their broad gauge track as far 
as it was feasible, to Golden City, and then as the onl}' means of 
reaching the mineral district through Clear Creek Canon, adopted 
the narrow gauge, which has since come into general use in the 
west. It was an imperative necessity, for it must pass over a 
grade of one hundred and twenty-five feet, and for a short dis- 
tance of even two hundred and seventy-three feet to the mile. 
Moreover, it has been found that in point of cost and in the 
expense of working, only about one-half the outlay is required by 
the new system. No one can pass over its line without admiring 
the engineering skill of its construction, surmounting obstacles 
that many incredulous minds considered impossibilities. 

The credit of this stupendous work is due to Mr. T. E. Sickels 



314 THE ROUND TRIP. 

whose name ought to be identified with the enterprise carried 
through by his resolute skill. 

It has already reached the apparently insurmountable barrier 
of the " Snowy Range," the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. 

We left Denver in a driving snow storm, scarcely an object 
of interest visible from the windows of the railway carriage, and 
arriving at Golden, were transferred to the narrow gauge. As 
we passed upward through the narrow and precipitous canon, 
the clouds broke and displayed a scene of wonders. The 
bare rocks stood out in bold relief from the sparkling snow, and 
the pines in their fleecy dress of winter were more than ever 
beautiful. Turning and twisting through rocks and ice-clad 
defiles for eighteen miles, we thought of the great power that had 
riven the cliffs asunder with only more admiration than we ac- 
corded to the daring engineers, who, lowered in ropes from the 
crags overhead, first surveyed the route, and ventured with their 
human skill to combat the forces of nature. 

This canon, twenty-five years since bordering smoothly the 
side of its stream, has been, for its fifty miles of length, picked 
and turned over to the bed rock and sifted for the precious 
deposits, until it is as rough as the overhanging crags. Along 
the railroad line are to be seen conduits, sluices and winches, 
used in the process of placer mining, or abandoned when they 
have served their purposes. A few miners of the ancient per- 
suasion still pursue their labors, although the best pockets have 
been cleaned out, and the chances of nuggets are so small that 
average daily earnings are scarcely more than the miner's sup- 
port. The great crowd have left the exhausted placers for the 
mountains, where, under the organized system of capitalists or 
corporations, there is either great wealth to be gained or dis- 
astrous failure to be experienced. 



GEORGETOWN. 31^ 

The poor man, instead of working for himself is a day- 
laborer for hire, and the ricli man becomes either a millionaire 
or a bankrupt. This is the tendency of all business at the 
present day as conducted by " soulless corporations," and yet 
corporations have done a good work for the country. Without 
them railroads and telegraph lines could not have been built, and 
progress would have come to a stand-still. 

A corporation might do something for Idaho Springs. It 
began its career as a mining camp, and now aspires to be a 
watering-place and sanitarium, like Manitou. 

Here is also a fine climate, unusual seasons excepted. It is 
in the midst of romantic mountain scenery, 7,400 feet above the 
sea level. Its mineral springs, hot and cold, of iron and soda, 
are said to be wonderfully efficacious. It is of easy access, only 
thirty-six miles or threq hours from Denver, but there is no 
" Improvement Company " to spend money in making it attrac- 
tive. No pretty temples are built over its springs, which resemble 
unreclaimed cesspools. No shady walks with arbors of trained 
clematis are laid out, and there is no order or beauty in the 
buildings that straggle about in the uniformity of ugliness, still 
preserving the wretched characteristics of a mining camp. 

Georgetown, fourteen miles beyond Idaho Springs, is the 
terminus of this branch of the Colorado Central. 

In 1866 it was a mere " camp " in the first year of its exist- 
ence, and the total value of its productions was only $500. It 
is now forced up against the abrupt precipices of the Rocky 
Mountains, the humancurrent having flowed upwards to a level 
of 8,400 feet, and there spread itself into the streets of a city. 
Its people may well be proud of their enterprise and wealth. 
Before them they have bright anticipations reflected from the 
tons of solid ore, inexhaustible in the mountains around them. 



3i6 THE ROUND TRIP. 

Already they have churches of every denomination. George- 
town has its higli school, its halls for theatrical representations, 
lectures and political gatherings, without which the mountain 
eagles would droop and die, if they could not pick at each 
other with their beaks. It has its fashionable Stewart's for 
ladies, and saloons and billiard rooms for gentlemen, hotels for 
genuine comfort, newspapers, libraries and museums for general 
entertainment, in fact, all that can make happy this little secluded 
world. 

In wintry weather we could not visit with advantage the sur- 
roundings of Georgetown. Above it is " Green Lake," a favorite 
resort in summer, and then clear and transparent down to its 
emerald depths. The " Devil's Gate," the " Bridal Veil," and 
other resorts of fantastic names are in the list of show places, 
and beyond all rises the lofty summit of Gray's Peak, in summer 
as well as winter wrapped in perpetual snow. Even had it been 
practicable to climb to its top, we would have been satisfied with 
our ascent to Pike's Peak, of equal height, as adventure enough for 
one summer. Warned by the portentous snow clouds wreathing 
the mountains and creeping towards the cafion, we hastened 
back to Idaho Springs, where, sorely against inclination, we were 
blocked up by storms for nearly a week. 

Central City is situated on the branch of Clear Creek, from 
which we diverged in ascending the railway. A ridge of the 
mountains known as " the divide " separates it from Idaho, six 
miles away. The summit of the pass is about equi-distant from 
the two towns, and the route between them, an equal transit up 
and down hill with an elevation of one thousand feet to be over- 
come, must be through Virginia Canon on the Idaho side, and by 
Russel's Gulch from Central City. In many places the road is 



GENERAL GRANT'S DRIVE. 317 

very steep and cut around sharp turns. It was on this moun- 
tain that Gen. Grant took his memorable drive. 

" You see," said Opdyke, " this was how it was. I've been 
twitted about it because I'm a democrat, and folks said I wanted 
to kill him on that account — just as if I wanted to kill myself 
too ! I hain't got enough political principle for that. It was 
all a mistake about our getting down so quick. After we got a 
little over the divide, and I was puttin' on 'em along tol'ble fast, 
the president says he, ' Bill, how long will it be before we get 
down ? ' 

" ' About twenty minutes, or it may be twenty-five,' says I. 

" 'Couldn't you make it twice as much? ' says he. 

" Now I understood him ' twice as quick,' and accordin' I slung 
out the silk to please him. Well, they did lick it, that's a fact ! 
Why, sir, we come around some of the curves with both side 
wheels in the air for forty rods at a time, so that a fellow who 
come along a spell behind us said I drove down in a wheel-barrow. 

" The general, he gripped on to the bars and clinched his 
teeth, and actooally bit his cigar in two, so it dropped out of his 
mouth, but he didn't say nothin' till I reined up at Beebe's just 
ten minutes from the time he spoke first, and them six horses 
stood smoking like six high pressure ingines. When we got off 
onto the stoop, the president drawed back, and showing. his ha'r 
says he, ' Mr. William Opdyke, take my hat, you're the only man 
that ever scared me ! ' " 

It was not in the power of Opdyke to frighten us with this 
style of driving, for the journey over the mountain from Idaho 
Springs to Central City was the work of a whole day. The snow 
had fallen to the depth of two feet, and in some places much 
more. As we toiled up the ascent with frequent stops that 
almost amounted to an habitual stand-still, we had abundant 



3i8 THE ROUND TRIP. 

leisure to admire the charms of the wintry landscape, but the 
poetry of " Beautiful Snow " was not inspiring enough to over- 
come the weariness of slow progress, the biting nips of the frost, 
and the sweeps of the fierce nor'-wester that whirled its white 
wreaths around us. 

As we came down the slope towards Central City there was 
no displa}' of coach driving calculated to alarm timid outsiders, 
but the jaded beasts, urged on by an unsparing lash, barely suc- 
ceeded in staggering to the door of the Teller House, the 
principal hotel of the place, and considering its first-class pre- 
tensions, realized only in its high prices, the most cheerless and 
uncomfortable house of entertainment we had yet seen in 
Colorado. 

Central City was almost totally destroyed by fire a few years 
ago. It is now rebuilt and ready for another similar experience. 
Here where gold has been scooped up by the handfuls no use 
is made of it to make life comfortable or any thing more than 
endurable. The town is one vast mining gulch, with shapeless 
houses dumped here and there among the excavations, and cling- 
ing to the side hills. 

Black Hawk, where the reduction works are chiefly in oper- 
ation, so closely connected with Central City that it may be 
considered a part of the town, is at the terminus of the western 
fork of the railroad. 

Silver is the great product of the East Creek Caiion. On 
this side of the ridge the mineral chiefly produced is gold. We 
were escorted by a guide for more than a mile under the 
mountains through the tunnel of the Bob-tail works, turning off at 
different points to inspect side galleries, steam engines and little 
colonies of people busy in the subterranean darkness, by the dim 
illumination of tallow candles. 



RETURN TO THE UNION PACIFIC. 319 

It was Sunday, the day on which in quiet towns there is a 
hallowed rest from labor, the stillness of the air only broken by 
the music of church bells, and godliness and cleanliness sit down 
together for one-seventh of the week in peace. There is hap- 
piness without gold. Here is gold without happiness. Ever 
toiling, day and night, week-days and Sabbaths, in darkness, 
begrimed with dirt, amidst the clatter of machinery, under the 
drippings of shafts and tunnels, the pale-faced miner works for 
the yellow dust that blinds his eyes to the sweet enjoyment 
of life. 

We descended the western branch of the railroad until we 
came to the point from which we had diverged on the upward 
track to Georgetown, and then through Clear Creek Canon came 
out at the foot of the narrow gauge road in Golden City. This 
little place may be said to live from the gold and silver washes 
of the upper canons, having its refineries and works for reducin<^ 
both metals. 

At Golden we come again to the broad gauge track, by which 
a direct connection is made with the Union Pacific five miles 
west of Cheyenne, distance 119 miles. One may return, if de- 
sirable, from Golden to Denver, 17 miles, and thence take the 
Kansas Pacific for the east. 

From a more southern part of the State, the Atchison, Topeka 
and Santa Fe forms a straight line to St. Louis. 



22 THE ROUND TRIP 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

Cheyenne — Projected Railroad to the Black Hills — 
The Great Cattle Range — Life of the Ranchman — 
Suggestions to Young Men — Nebraska — Omaha — The 
Bridge Across the Missouri — Railroads to Chicago — 
The Chicago and North-West — A Dinner in the 
Hotel-Car — Contrast of Mining and Agriculture — 
Conclusion. 

Various points on the Union Pacific afford communication 
with the Black Hills, north of its line, in Dakota. 

The measured distance from some of these places may be 
less than from Cheyenne, but after careful surveys for grade 
this has been found most suitable for the starting-point of a 
branch railroad. Moreover, the selection has been influenced 
by the connection here with Colorado. Accordingly, the con- 
struction of a narrow gauge has been determined to Deadwood, 
the chief mining camp of the Black Hills, this summer, the 
whole distance to be not far from two hundred miles. 

The ore of the Black Hills, although of low grade, is abun- 
dant, and gold mining has been very profitable, notwithstanding 



LIFE OF THE RANCHMAN. 321 

the disadvantages of transportation. The " Homestake " and 
other mines have put up their machinery at excessive cost, and 
yet are able to declare large dividends upon their stock. As 
soon as the railroad reaches Deadwood, or by the time it has 
made any considerable advance, such a stimulus will be given to 
mining and the business connected with it, that the enterprise 
cannot fail to be successful. Already Cheyenne derives no 
small profit from this trade. 

Before the gold discoveries, it was a large town centred in 
the best cattle district of the West. Whatever the success of 
miners, whether there may be exhaustion or new discoveries of 
mines, ranchmen will never be poor and cattle will multiply 
beyond calculation. These vast plains, watered by the Platte 
river and its branches, in summer covered with luxuriant grass 
converted to rich standing hay in winter, are capable of sustain- 
ing cattle, sheep and horses in numbers that I will not estimate 
for fear of being accused of exaggeration. 

The life of a ranchman — at least of some ranchmen — doubt- 
less has its hardships. Before undertaking it, a man should 
make his calculations. A trial balance should suggest itself to 
his mind. Ranch life is debtor to a total change of habits, to the 
loss of "society," theatres, lectures, clubs and churches, besides 
many bodily comforts and table luxuries. It is creditor by profit- 
able business, out of door exercise, the society of nature in- 
stead of fellow-creatures, and above all, by health of body and 
of mind. With this account before his eyes, let a would-be 
ranchman sit down, calmly reflect and decide. Were I a young 
man looking about for a business in life, I should draw a balance 
in favor of Laramie plains. 

It may be asked, "Would you take a wife to live with you on 
a ranch ? " 

7\ 



322 THE ROUND TRIP. 

Certainly I would not take the Miss Culture introduced in 
the early part of this narrative ; I would not take there a woman 
who is merely a fine lady, but I would take a lady who is a 
true woman. 

This is not poetry ; it is not the sentimentality of "love in a 
cottage ; " it is practical. It is not the whole solution of prob- 
lems of financial depression, over-production, unequal divisions 
of property, vice and miser)-, but it is a skirmisher upon the 
flanks of those evils. 

Ranch life is a return to first principles of living to patri- 
archal simplicity. When we talk of "sitting down in heaven 
with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob," let us begin by sitting down 
after their example on earth. 

But young men must not be led to suppose that cattle raising 
is an invariable success. Even to those who thoroughly under- 
stand the business, there come years of failure, occasional severe 
winters, distemper among the herds, Indian raids, thefts by white 
men, dull markets, and many other discouragements. 

Experience is more necessary than is generally supposed. 
Don't imagine that you may lay aside 3'-our walking cane, quit 
the Fifth avenue promenade, jump out of your faultless clothes, 
rig yourself out in blue woollen shirt and buckskin trousers, take 
the train for Laramie plains, buy a herd of cattle, mount a mus- 
tang and be an accomplished ranchman in a week. 

You would be bucked from your horse in less than three 
minutes ; you would lose your cattle in the first year by theft and 
your own ignorance, and then you would come home disgusted. 

Abandon the city and all your old conventional habits. Go 
west to seek employment from some man who has been success- 
ful in the business. Get what wages you can for one or two 
years ; work for nothing if you can get no pay, and if no one 



OMAHA. 223 

will employ you on these terms, pay for the privilege of working. 
Your father has probably paid ten times more for your useless 
Latin and Greek than it will now cost you to get the practical 
information you require. Remember that no log cabin is so rude 
that it cannot contain a library, and reading is never so well 
digested as when it is an accompaniment of work. 

We are at Cheyenne, six thousand feet above the sea level, 
five hundred and sixteen miles west of Omaha, towards which we 
gradually descend over this great cattle range to the lower plains 
of Nebraska. 

Here are the rich farming lands owned by Government and 
the Union Pacific railroad in alternate sections. They are fast 
coming under cultivation, so that in five years from this time there 
will scarcely be an unfilled acre on the line of the road through 
the whole State. 

" Oumahaw," on the west bank of the "Mizourah," as town 
and river are called in the vernacular, was once the capital and 
is still the most prosperous city of Nebraska. 

Although it does not correspond with our Eastern ideas of 
municipal grandeur, it is a very respectable town of 20,000 in- 
habitants, well provided with saloons, churches and schools, of 
which the High School, set on its chief eminence as a proud 
monument to be seen by all travellers, boasts facilities for 
"giving a fellow all the learning worth having." 

Wiser than the Knickerbockers, who did not foresee that the 
avenue they called Broadway would be in the future too narrow 
for traffic, the people of Omaha have laid out all their streets 
one hundred feet wide, so that when the day comes for rapid 
transit, they will not be blocked up by omnibuses while the 
question is debated. 

That eccentric gentleman, George Francis Train, who has 



324 "^^E ROUND TRIP. 

cultivated many grains of sense with all his wild tares, had much 
to do with the development of Omaha. He fully appreciated its 
natural advantages, and earnestly advocated the construction of 
the Union Pacific Railroad which starts from this point. 

This great work was begun in the latter part of 1865. It was 
then Train made the prophecy that it it would be completed 
in less than five years. He was called a crazy enthusiast for this 
speech, as well as for many other sayings and doings for which 
he merited the name. But when the road was actually com- 
pleted in a little more than three years and a half, no one gave 
him the credit his prediction deserved. Train invested all his 
money in Omaha lands, but taxes and financial panics have been 
too much for him to bear while he had also on his hands the 
liberation of Ireland, the prospective Presidency of the United 
States, and the conversion of all mankind to his own skeptical 
philosophy. 

The Union Pacific Railroad may well be proud of the great 
bridge that spans the river here. 

A steamboat captain on the train, however, remarked that 
"the durned river ain't to be trusted; the channel changes so 
often that the bend that's here to-day may be ten mile off in a 
year or two, and then what's the good of this bridge ? " He was 
opposed to railroads, as they had injured his business, and so he 
trumped up this charge against the river that refuses to sup- 
port him any longer. 

I suggested that, in case his anticipations were realized, the 
bridge could be removed to suit the convenience of the Missouri, 
to which he replied that "it might not fit." " Anyway," he said, 
"railroads are a perversion of nature ; the Lord made rivers to 
raft and steamboat on, and if they ain't enough men could make 
canals, and He'd find water for 'em. He never meant that 



A DINNER IN THE HOTEL-CAR. 325 

these corporations should take away the business of honest 
men." 

After crossing the bridge there is a choice of three railroads 
from Council Bluffs to Chicago — the Chicago and North-West, 
the Rock Island and the Burlington and Quincy roads. They 
run on nearly parallel lines at sufficient distance apart to de- 
velop the resources of Iowa and Illinois, States excelled by 
none of the Union in soil adapted to wheat and corn. 

These roads are all singularly profitable notwithstanding 
their close competition. Their trains leave at the same time and 
arrive in Chicago together to form a connection with the Lake 
Shore Railroad to Buffalo. Without disparaging the others on 
which we have sometimes travelled, we cannot too highly praise 
the management of the Chicago and North-West. 

Rolling along upon its smooth track we reach Chicago in 
twenty-two hours. Not the least of our enjoyments is the 
luxurious hotel-car. We dispense at last with the lunch-basket 
which has been the stay of life along the line from San Francisco 
to Omaha. 

The Government directors who annually travel over the 
Pacific roads, do them no more than justice in reporting that 
they are well built, kept in excellent repair, and intelligently 
managed. Yet the public has one favor to ask of them. Let 
them come without notice upon the sharks who furnish meals 
for other passengers along the route, and let them breakfast, 
dine and sup as ordinary mortals do for five days. 

Passengers pay their dollars not complaining that ninety per 
cent, is the landlord's profit, but they find fault with reason be- 
cause they cannot get decent and digestible food at any price. 

Hasty perpendicular feeding is in a great measure the cause 
of what Germans call " the American complaint," dyspepsia. 



326 THE ROUND TRIP. 

I am not partial to the Continental cooking — to sauerkraut, 
sausages, raw ham, caviare, lager beer and sour wine, but I do 
commend the practice of their railroads in permitting passengers 
to sit down at well served tables in well ordered restaurants, 
where even incongruous articles may be placed in the stomach at 
such considerate distances that they are comparatively harmless. 

What a change from the " twenty minutes for dinner ! " when 
we were obliged to leave our rolling homes, often crossing over 
mud and snow to cheerless barracks where supercilious waiters 
dashed upon the table cold and repelling dishes of tough steak, 
floating bacon, pies and baked beans, and cups of coffee and 
tea, the steeped productions of home industry ; and then to 
listen as we bolted the indigestible mass for the expected scream 
of the whistle. Now, the polite negro, yes, I will call him the 
colored man, if he pleases, and in the joy of the moment, my 
colored brother, politely hands us a bill-of-fare at which 
Delmonico need not sneer, lays a spotless cloth, and sets upon 
it warm plates, silver ware, goblets and wine glasses. Then 
follow in their regular order soup, fish, entrees, tender meats with 
succulent vegetables, dessert of ice cream and fruit ending with 
the best gift of Araby the blest, while sherry and champagne 
have moistened the abundant and comfortable repast. 

All these roads make an uninterrupted progress through 
cultivated farms, and the green fields, or the harvest ripe and 
bending to the breeze, are in lovely contrast with the sterile 
mountains and plains of the uncultivated territories. 

Happy farmers ! we often exclaimed, as we saw them gath- 
ering in their golden treasures. 

Poor devils ! too, we sometimes called them when in one 
night the grasshoppers blasted their labor of a year, swept their 
green fields and left them desolated as by fire. 



CONTRAST OF MINING AND AGRICULTURE. 327 

I have in my mind an indelible picture of an Iowa farmer 
leaning over his fence and surveying his stripped corn stalks, 
with an expression on his face of resignation, though a shade of 
it mingled with the query, " Is this the work of Providence or 
of the devil ? " If the train had stopped long enough I would 
have tried to console him. I would have said, " My friend, we 
must all take our chances ; mines peter out, cattle starve on the 
plains, ships are wrecked, merchants fail, tradesmen are un- 
employed ; all these things happen, but they do not happen all 
the time, and it is equally true that the grasshopper does not 
always come in his might, and that he does not always come to 
the same place." 

So, sons of the soil, take courage in the reflection that hap- 
piness and misery are mingled through the world, but the distri- 
bution of happiness is greater for you than for any of the rest. 
When you dream of rich deposits of gold and silver, imagining 
you may find them and help yourselves to unlimited stores like 
Aladdin or Monte Cristo, remember the comparison made by 
Governor Stanford, of the mining and agricultural industries of 
California, and see now how it has been justified by results up 
to the close of 1878. Take the mining interest in which I in- 
clude Nevada, as the stocks of all the mines are quoted on the 
San Francisco Exchange. The total amount of dividends from 
California and Consolidated Virginia, the two great " Bonanzas," 
from the time of their first working has been — 

$71,180,000 
Less assessments 411,200 



$70,768,800 



showing this net profit, nearly all of which was pocketed by four 
men, Flood, O'Brien, Mackay and Fair. 



328 THE ROUND TRIP. 

Per contra, the whole amount of assessments on the other 
178 mines quoted on the list, has been — 

$71,253,040 
Less dividends 45,039,500 



Loss . . $26,2x3,540 

To this may be added the commissions and charges of 
brokers which, at a moderate estimate for all these years, may be 
computed to be $50,000,000. 

If the stock list may be taken as a criterion it would appear 
that the whole people have lost more than a few men have 
gained. On the other hand, it is to be admitted that the labor- 
ing miners have gained a living, and that there are many other 
mines productive and unproductive not on the stock list where 
profits and losses cannot be estimated from reliable data. 

My object was to make a comparison of the mining and 
agricultural resources of California, which should properly ap- 
pear in a previous chapter. I had hoped to obtain the agricul- 
tural statistics of 1878, but as they are not yet forthcoming, I 
here introduce some figures kindly furnished for my purpose by 
Mr. Elmore H. Walker, of the New York Produce Exchange. 
It may be premised that the year 1877 was one of extraordinary 
drought. 

The cereal crops of California in 1877 were — 



Indian Corn 
Wheat . 
Oats . . 
Barley 
Potatoes . 
Hay . . 



1,550,000 bushels of the value of $ 1,472,500 

22,000,000 " " " 28,600,000 

1,750,000 " " " 1,277,500 

7,800,000 " " " 7,020,000 

3,200,000 " " " 2,400,000 

560,000 tons " " 8,400,000 



Total value cereals, hay and potatoes . . $49,170,000 



CONTRAST OF MINING AND AGRICULTURE. 



329 



In 1876 the California crops were as follows : — 



Indian Corn 


. 1,600,000 


bushels 


of tl 


le value ol 


$ 1,712,000 


Wheat . 


. 30,000,000 


" 


" 




34,200,000 


Rye . . 


78,000 


" 


« 




74,100 


Oats . . . 


. 2,450,000 


K 


" 




1,813,000 


Barley . 


. 11,800,000 


• < 


" 




8,142,000 


Potatoes . . 


. 4,000,000 


" 


" 




3,320,000 


Hay . . . 


850,000 


tons 


" 




9,868,500 



Total value cereals, potatoes and hay 



5,129,600 



The wheat crop of California in 187S was about as large as 
the crop of 1876, and is much larger than the crop of 1877. The 
barley crop of that State in 1878, was, it is believed, larger than 
the crop of 1876. Can any one doubt that the interest of Cali- 
fornia will be promoted by the encouragement of this more reg- 
ular permanent and widely diffused industry, rather than by 
the development of mining, the source of speculation and 
gambling ? 

Afid now as we come so near the end of our journey among 
the farmers of the "Old West," the reports of their productions 
find an appropriate place following those of California. 

Cereal Crops of Nebraska. 





Bushels. 


Acres. 


Value. 


Indian Corn 

Wheat 

Rve 


38,500,000 
5,640,000 

5,400,000 
520,000 

1,500,000 
475,000 


1,013.158 
376,000 

135,000 
21,667 

V4',2S6 

327,586 


$6,930,000 
4,681,200 


Oats 


810,000 
140,400 

600,000 
1,733-75° 


Barley 

Buckwheat 

Potatoes 

(lay, tons 


Total . i . . . 




1,887,697 


514,885,350 



33° 



THE ROUND TRIP. 
Cereal Crops of Iowa. 





Bushels. 


Acres. 


Value. 


Indian Corn 

Wheat 

Rve 


1 56,000,000 
37,810,000 

42,000,000 

5,300,000 



9,500,000 
2,550,000 


4,800,000 
2,607,584 

1,105,263 

230,435 

95,000 
1,961,568 


$39,000,000 
32,894,700 


Oats 


8,400,000 
2,120,000 

3,610,000 
12,112,500 


Barley 

Buckwheat 

Potatoes 

Hay, tons , 


Total 




10,799,820 


$98,137,200 



Cereal Crops of Illinois. 



Bushels. 



Acres. 



Value. 



Indian Corn 
Wheat . . 
Rve . . . 
Oats . . . 
Barley . 
Buckwheat 
Potatoes 
Hay, tons . 



260,000,000 

33,000,000 

2,844,000 

59,200,000 

2,760,000 

176,000 

12,834.009 

3,936,000 



8,865,517 
2,000,090 

1 58,000 
1 ,600,000 

120,000 
1 1 ,000 

138,000 
2,466,006 



75.400,000 
34,320,000 

1,422,000 
13,024.000 

2,152,800 
1 28,480 

5,046.960 
23104,320 



Total 



15.452,517 



; 1 55, 1 98, 560 



The products of three great States whose industries are 
chiefly agricultural for one year amount to a value of ^268,231,- 
iio. This has not been divided among a few men ; its profits 
have been evenly distributed, and the aggregate loss falls upon 
none. Farmers, stick to your ploughs and thank God that you 
have inherited the curse upon Adam ! 

Arriving at Chicago we are so near to our homes that my 
readers will not care to be piloted over the well-known tracks 
that lead to the Atlantic coast. If they have been entertained I 
shall be pleased, and it will be a greater source of satisfaction 
if they have in any degree been instructed. 



CONCLUSION. 331 

We have travelled together over seas and mountains, beheld 
nature in her beauty and sublimity, and I hope that more prac- 
tical observations have shown that, as a nation, we owe our 
wealth, number and power to what we produce, and are able by 
a great railroad system to transport from our rich and boundless 
acres. Manufactures and commence, shackled as they are by 
tariff legislation, are small and of little account in comparison 
to this. Even agriculture feels the pressure of the burden im- 
posed upon it by a monopoly that enhances the cost of the 
farmer's tools and household wants. 

But notwithstanding all, with its natural advantages, it 
overcomes every obstacle that opposes its progress. With new 
and increasing appliances of machinery, guided by intelligent 
labor, it outrivals the old-world systems of tillage and harvesting, 
and insures us a lasting peace with the nations of Europe, for 
it brings them to our feet as suppliants for their daily bread. 



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THE HOME ENCYCLOPEDIA of Biography, History, Literature, 

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